E 

■310 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DaDDH31fl47A 




Book 'H^7 



El 



HISTORY 



OF 



T'RENCH INFLUENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



JO WHICH IS ADDED, 



AN EXPOSITION 



OF 



A CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
PRINTED LOR THE ATTTHOK.. 

181 a. 






Uii STi 



;#" 



A HISTORY 



OP 



FRENCH INFLUENCE, &c. 



The freedom of opinion is one of the inalienable rights of 
man, and one of the great gifts of his creator ; it is a privilege 
which no human po^|B& ought to infringe,* and no state of so- 
ciety unnecessarily Bpbridge. To commune on every subject 
which may relate to his happiness and improvement, is not only 
a natural right, but a principle of moral expediency : in almost 
every state of civilized life, and under every legitimate form of 
government, we find this right both recognized and established. 
It was peculiarly congenial to the manners and education of 
the American people, and early adopted as their birthright : 
this privilege is now guarantied to every citizen of these states 
as the sacred palladium of his liberty,! and by human wisdom 
deemed the best safe-guard of the people against the inroads 
of human ambition. Should we live to see that reign of terror, 
might I say, that terrible state of things, when this faithful sen- 
tinel may be awed into silence, the voice of freemen marked 
with proscription, and the arm of the law cease to give protec- 
tion to property, to liberty, and life, then, indeed, we shall have 
cause to tremble for the federal government, for the rising gene- 
ration, for posterity, nay, for the very existence of our compact. 

Influenced by no other motives, and actuated by no other in- 
terests than those which aie common to my fellow citizens at 
large, of supporting the laws and constitution c>f the union, and 
at the same time of uniting with them, with all my feeble 
strength, in pursuing every constitutional measure, which may 
tend to the restoration of peace, and the reinstatement of our na- 
tional prosperity, I shall submit to the consideration of the 



* See Montcqiileu. 

T See the constilution of the United States. 



^MT 



public, a few observations relative to the present state of the 
nation, the causes which have contributed to produce it, and» 
with a view of removing the evil, the policy of changing our 
administration. 

Our national disease has now become alarming, and baffled 
all the modern theories of the south, and our political safety 
rests on the practical skill and experience of the north. We can 
never hope to have the disease removed without a removal of 
the cause ; and for that end we must trace the complaint to its 
very source-*-in dangerous situations, the pulse must not only be 
fek, but every wound probed to the very bottom. 

In these few remarks, I propose, 1st. To prove to the world, 
that a French connexion has been the great source of all our na- 
tional misfortunes. 2dly. That a continental alliance with that 
nation, at this critical period, is incompatible with our national 
safety, and that all cause of gratitude to her has long since ceas- 
ed. 3dly. That a northern policy of agriculture and commerce, 
is the true policy of these states, considering their situation, the 
genius and enterprise of the people, and^heir peculiar bias for 
the sea. ^V 

In this mournful procession of our wrongs, where shall I com- 
mence, and where shall I end ? Shall I go back to the public in- 
sults and indignities offered to the father of his country, the pre- 
cursor of our national injuries, or the many aggressions to our 
citizens, or the spoliations committed on our commerce, or the 
degrading propositions made to our envoys in the years of '98 
and '09,* might I be permitted to say, the juggling conduct of 
the present emperor, then first consul of France, to obtain mo- 
ney from the public functionaries of a virtuous nation, by bri- 
bery and corruption ? No, this recital would swell a volume ex- 
ceeding in size the Justinian Code. Waving a recital of all 
these indignities, insults, tricks, frauds, and aggressions, I shall 
commence my narrative with the sera of modern philosophy in 
the United States, forming a memorable epoch in the beginning 
of the nineteenth century, and confine myself to a few of those- 
prominent acts which have distinguished the administration of 
Mr. Jefferson and his presiding successor, such as the disman- 
tlement of our navy, the loss of which is now so severely felt on 
all our maritime coast ; the abandonment of our mercantile 
claims to France by the treaty of 1803 ; the payment of fifteen 
millions of dollars to that nation for the right of Louisiana, an 
eternal source of dissension between us and the Spanish empire ; 
the ruinous effects of the Milan, Berlin, and other decrees, on our 
commerce ; the denial of the official authority of Spain, affecting 

* See the report of the Secretary of State in '99- 



the amicable adjustment of our claims againt that country; 
the deplorable effects of our restrictive systems, embargo, non- 
intercourse acts, &c. J and conclude with a few remarks on 
the effects of a congressional caucus, its infringement on the 
constitutional rights of the people, and the policy, at this criti- 
cal moment, of placing the helm of government in the hands 
of an individual of political principles congenial with the north, 
and of virtue, patriotism, energy and talents equal to its man- 
agement. In vain do we contend for the views of parties and 
partizans ; in vain for names, whilst the more substantial inte- 
rests of our country are at stake ; nay, whilst the republic is threat- 
ened with ruin, and calamity reigns over our land. 

The cloud which has so long darkened our political horizon 
has now burst, and fatal experience has brought home the dan- 
gers of moral and political innovation. The wild theories of the 
south have reduced our country to a crisis awful indeed, and all 
hopes of safety are placed in heaven and the policy of the north. 
Of late years a new-fangled system of philosophy and government 
has been introduced M^ngst us, a source of many evils to the 
old world, and of grcEwRilamity to the United States ; its effects 
• are now known and felt by every section in the- union, and its 
principles exploded by all classes of the community. In the 
language of a philosophic ruler, it has undergone a " full tide 
of experiments," and, like an exotic plant, uncongenial with our 
clime, it has faded and failed. The alluring and dangerous 
principles of Rousseau could never harmonize with those of re- 
ligion and virtue — nor those of a military despotism with a pure 
republic. By an inordinate ambition for power, under the mask 
of democratic simplicity, this doctrine was first ushered in amongst 
us, with all the philosophic array of diffusing a new light into 
this new world ; it was calculated to relax all ties of moral and 
political obligations, and in a great measure, favour the princi- 
ples of an agrarian law,* and consequently gained much popula- 
rity ; but, like the serpent in the garden of Eden, it soon allured 
and poisoned our private and public institutions. To predict the 
probable effects such a system of policy would sooner or later 
produce on our state affairs required no prophetic art ; it was no 
more than the result of ordinary calculation. From a doctrine of 
philosophic infidelity we could expect nothing favourable to mo- 
rals ; and from a system of Chinese policy, nothing less than Chi- 
nese degradation, 

* See Washingtoja's life by Judge Maf shall, vo{. v. 



Contrary to the cxperiejice of nations, the visage and customs 
of our ancestors, and the solemn advice of the father of his coun- 
try, strongly recommending the necessity of defending our mari- 
time rights by maritime force, we have seen our navy disman- 
tled, our mercantile intercourse stopped up, our produce rotting 
in our barns, our treasury drained, the vitals of the nation wasted 
by idle negotiations, and, to complete our system of experiments, 
we have seen a great empire descending to the degrading policy 
of asserting her rights by a system of maritime plunder. Using 
the language of the laws of nations on privateering : " Privateers 
may be esteemed but one remove from pirates ; as the underta- 
kers are supposed to have no immmediate injuries done them, nor 
have they any other motive but the hopes of gain to animate 
them to the engagement, 6r induce them commencing a trade 
of rapine and spoil on the persons and goods of innocent tra- 
ders."-'^' Such have been the effects of our southern policy, be- 
fore unknown in the United States, and perhaps in the annals 
of the world. 

What would the good people of this country say of that far- 
mer, who, forgetful of the ordinary ruld^pnd customs establish- 
ed in husbandry, and practised by his ancestors, spent his time 
in experiments, without paying any regard to the seasons, cli- 
mate, or the soil ? What of that merchant, who hazards his for- 
tune to various parts of the world, without insurance or a know- 
ledge of their produce, their markets, or staple manufactures ? 
What of that physician, who reduces a sound constitution into a 
state of debility by tampering experiments ? What of the states- 
man, who has wasted the strength and vitals of his country by 
wild theories, and in a defenceless, debilitated situation, exposes 
her to all the disasters of a war ? And of what ? Of ruin and de- 
vastation to the old world, from the theatre of which it has 
pleased divine providence to separate and protect us, our tem- 
ples, our firesides, and our peaceable abodes, by the wide ocean. 
Using the language of one of our envoys of ninety-eight,f in his 
communications to the then secretary of state, in relation to our 
affairs with France : " Nature seemed to have entitled the Unit- 
ed States^ in their remote situation, to the peaceable pursuit of 
their industry^ by means ivhereof in its various branches, their 
ruealth and power zvere rapidly increasing ; and to an exemption 
from the conficts of Europe, xuhich involvitig them, xvould check 
their population, drain their resources, and ensure their poverty,'' 
But let us suppose that the cause of aggression has been sufti- 



*See Beawes's Lex Mercatoria. 

f f^cc l!ie communications of Mr. Gerry. 



cient to provoke hostilities against foreign powers, was it not 
expedient and incumbent on our administration, first, to make the 
necessary preparations, if not for an impression, at least for a 
defence. On this subject, what is the language of Vattel ? "One 
of the political ends of society is to defend itself by the means of 
its union, from all insults or violence from without. If the so- 
ciety is not in a condition to repulse an aggressor, it is very im- 
perfect, it wants its principal support, and cannot long subsist. 
The nation ought to put itself in such a state as to be able to re- 
pel and humble an unjust enemy ; this is an important duty, 
which the care of its perfection, and even preservation itself, im- 
poses both on the state and its conductor."* 

But have not our administration negotiated with the bellige- 
rents for years ? Have not the treasury and the patience of the 
nation been long exhausted on this subject ? And have they not 
finally given the world ample proof of national courage, by em- 
barking into a maritime war, with a maritime force, bearing the 
ratio, in mercantile language, of one per cent, that is, of one ship of 
war to one hundred ? For if I am not very much mistaken, there 
is that difference between our navy and that of the British na- 
tion ; and should we be but fortunate enough to find all the 
seamen asleep in their hammocks, or in the situation in which 
Themistocles found the fleets of Xerxes,f we will make a 
bridge of them from Dover to Calais, lead over the French ar- 
mies, and hail the ruler of France and the continent as owr faith- 
ful ally, for establishing the freedom of the seas and of man.:}: 

With these preliminary observations, I shall now proceed to 
illustrate the truth of the propositions which I have promised the 
reader to prove. 

After the ratification of the French treaty of 1800, the first ob- 
noxious act of our Jeffersonian administration was the disman- 
tlement of our navy, at that time rapidly growing into strength 
and importance ; so much so, as to have given us the pleasing 
hopes of seeing it, in a short time, not only equal to the protec- 
tion of our national commerce, but commanding respect amongst 
foreigtt countries without increasing their jealousy ; at all times 
the English nation had more to fear from the ambition of France 
than the rising prosperity of the United States ; and certainly she 
could have no well grounded fears, for a length of time, of find- 
ing the maritime power of the United States her rival on the 

* See Vattel. 

t Plutarch's life of Themistocles. 

t Quid vetat ridere et dicere verura. 



8 

ocean. Considering the amazing advantages which we possess 
of ship materials and ship building in this country, instead of ba- 
ing laid up in dry docks, and of giving way to a miserable gun- 
boat system, a ridiculous creature of philosophic fancy, had 
our infant navy been fostered and nurtured for the period of 
nearly twelve years, how variant would have been the aspect of 
our country' — how different the state of the nation. With an ade- 
quate protection of a rising maritime force, at this day, our 
commerce must have exceeded all human calculation. 

The very appearance of a navy gives a certain degree of dig- 
nity and respect to a nation ; and though rarely called into ac- 
tion, is of importance in giving security to commerce. There 
is no maxim more true, than that a national preparation for war 
is the best security for peace, and that a dignified attitude of de- 
fence is a great security against insult. 

It is impossible to glance over history, either ancient or mo- 
dern, without finding many proofs and examples on this sub- 
ject. As well might we suppose that an individual naay enjoy 
all the rights and privileges of security without the aid of his 
own arm, or that of the municipal law, to protect him, as a nation 
to reap all the rights and advantages of commerce without a 
navy. 

The laws of nations are no more than moral obligations, 
which have, from the commencement of the world, been regula- 
ted and governed more by power and interest, than natural jus- 
tice — without the former, there is little security for the latter. 

Notwithstanding the meridional glory to which the Roman 
people arrived by land, and the many conquests which they ef- 
fected by the prowess of their arms, still they wisely avoided all 
kinds of maritime warfare, till they had provided themselves 
with a fleet calculated to make an impression on their enemies ; 
nay, till they became powerful on that element where their rights 
were invaded and annoyed^ What raised the Phoenicians, on a 
rock of sterility, to grandeur, to glory, and to riches, but their 
commerce and their fleets ? What enabled the Carthaginians to 
cope with Alexander the Great, and resist the Roman arnjs in a 
war of fifty years, but their great national enterprise, their com- 
merce, and their fleets ? By these the republics of Venice, Genoa, 
and of Holland, dispersed their wealth and influence all over the 
world. By commerce, the family of the Medici established a 
memorable epoch in the annals of their country. By her trade, 
her commerce, her manufactures, and her fleets, the British na- 
tion has established her mercantile influence all over the world, 
and her dominion on the ocean. By these our country is destined 
to rise from its present degraded enthralment, suitable only to the 
policy of a French philosopher, or of a Chinese slave ; nay, from 



9 

that state of vassalage under which she has been so long enslave 
ed, fettered, disgraced, and degraded. 

I cannot dismiss this article, without laying before the reader 
the pathetic advice of the father of his country, in his farewell 
address to the American people. Speaking on the subject of 
commerce, he says : " To an active external commerce, the pro- 
tection of a naval force is indispensable — this is manifest with re- 
gard to wars in which a state is itself a party— but besides this, 
it is in our own experience, that the most sincere neutrality is not 
a sufficient guard against the depredations of nations at wan- 
To secure respect to a neutral flag, requires a naval force, organi- 
zed and ready to vindicate it from insult or aggression — this 
may even prevent the necessity of going to war, by discourag- 
ing belligerent powers from committing such violations of the 
rights of the neutral party, as may, first or last, leave no other 
option. From the best information I have been able to obtain, 
it would seem as if our trade to the Mediterranean, without a 
protecting force, will always be insecure ; and our citizens expo- 
sed to the calamities from which numbers of them have but just 
been relieved. 

" These considerations invite the United States to look to the 
means, and to set about the gradual creation of a navy. The in- 
creasing progress of their navigation promises them, at no dis- 
tant period, the requisite supply of seamen ; and their means, 
in other respects, favour the undertaking. It is an encourage- 
ment likewise, that their particular situation will give weight and 
influence to a moderate naval force in their hands. Will it not 
then be advisable, to begin without delay to provide and lay up 
the materials for the building and equipping of ships of war ; 
and to proceed in the work by degrees, in proportion as our re- 
sources shall render it practicable without inconvenience ; so 
that a future war of Europe may not find our commerce in the 
same unprotected state in which it was found by the present ?'* 

The prophesies of that great man are now brought home, ancl 
proved by the alarming state of our country, of our towns and 
cities, ports and harbours, trade and commerce, in a defenceless 
state, now in mourning for the loss of an affectionate father, 
whose life was in vain spent in securing the happiness of his 
children — in vain in admonishing them of future ills— in vain ia 
bequeathing to them those blessings of freedom, prosperit}% and 
peace, which are now banished from our land. 

In the order of succession, the next public act worthy the 
consideration of the reader, and at the same time connected with 
French influence, and infringing on the laws of nations, nay, of 
the ordinary rules of justice, was the abandonment of our mer- 
cantile claims to the government of France, exceeding the enor- 
mous sum of twenty millions of dollars ^ for these honest claims 

B 



10 

the merchants have never been remunerated, either by France 
nor their own government. Anterior and subsequent to the 
year of eighteen hundred, in which a treaty of amity and com- 
merce was ratified between France and the United States, many 
spoliations were committed on our commerce, as appears from 
the history of our public communications of that time, and in a 
particular manner from those of our envoys of '98 and '99,* and 
here it may not appear improper to remark, that notwithstanding 
the degrading and humiliating treatment of those gentlemen who 
officiated on that public occasion, suitable more to the condition 
of abject slaves, th^n the dignified state of the public functionaries 
of a great republic ; and though the primary object of their mission 
was to obtain an adjustment of these claims ; still, strange to be 
told, as if bewildered by some extraordinary infatuation for that 
government, our administration, on the following year, forgetful 
of our national disgrace, patched up a treaty with that country, in 
which those very claims are entirely excluded jf a treaty containing 
many promises and engagements which have never been fulfilled ; 
nor can I ever reflect on the impression which this treaty, at 
that time, made on the minds of some well meaning men, con- 
gratulating themselves, as if with some national donation, with- 
out bringing to my recollection a similar impression, whick 
was once cherished by the people of these states, in conse- 
quence of their paper money receiving a governmental guaran- 
tee, as if in the one case the security of payment was changed 
by the depreciation of the debt ; or in the other, the faith or 
honesty of the French nation was to be improved by the aban- 
donment of our claims, and obtaining from them new promises 
by the ratification of a new treaty. Soon after this treaty, the 
retrocession of Louisiana to France, by the King of Spain, open- 
ed a door of misunderstanding between the United States and 
the former ; this arose from the construction of the treaty of 
Madrid, ratified on the 2rth of October, 1795, by his Catholic 
Majesty and the United States. In the year 1803,:}: with a view 
of removing this misunderstanding, and of reviving our claims 
against the French government, and in order to embrace both 
objects, two additional conventions were ratified between both 
nations ; and what was the result of these treaties, if they may 
be so called ? It was to dupe the government, and fleece the honest 
people of these states out of 15,000,000 of dollars. This sum was 
absolutely paid to France for the French title to that territory, 
whilst the American merchants received but httle or nothing in lieu 

* See the coramuDications of Mr. Gerry, and the report of Mr. Pitkering, hereto an- 
nexed. 
f See the 6tli volume of the United States Laws. 
I See treaties of 1803, in the 6tU and 7th volumes of the United States Laws. 



il 

of their claims ; so that in fact, and in deed, that country, by her 
management, influence, and address, has early contrived to chain 
us to her continental system of contribution. Before I proceed to 
examine the policy of the purchase of Louisiana, or the conse- 
quences resulting from it to the United States, I will call the at- 
tention of the reader to the provisions made for the payment of 
our claims, in order to satisfy him of the advantages of a French 
connexion and French policy in the United States. 

Toward the payment of twenty millions of dollars, the public 
appropriations made by the treaty of 1803 do not exceed that 
number of francs,* and such are the artificial embarrassments plac- 
ed in the way, as to amount to a denial of justice. The conditions 
of payment are accompanied with so many provisos, and subject 
to such limitations, with an ulterior appeal to the decision of the 
French government herself, as to render a compliance with them 
impossible to the claimants, as will appear from the 5th article 
of said treaty, hereto subjoined. " The provisions of the pre- 
ceding articles shall apply only to captures, of which the council ot 
prizes shall have ordered restitution : it being well understood 
that the claimant cannot have recourse to the United States, 
otherwise than he might have had to the government of the 
French republic, and only in case of the insufficiency of the 
captors. 2d. The debts mentioned in the said fifth article of the 
convention contracted 30th of September, 1800, the payment of 
which has been heretofore claimed of the actual government of 
France, and for which the creditors have a right to the protec- 
tion of the United States. The said 5th article does not com- 
prehend prizes where condemnation has been, or shall be con- 
firmed. It is the express intention of the contracting parties not 
to extend the benefit of the present convention to reclama- 
tions of American citizens, who shall have established houses of 
commerce in France, England, or other countries than the Unit- 
ed States, in partnership with foreigners, and who by that rea- 
son, and the nature of their commerce, ought to be regarded as 
domiciliated in the places where such houses exist ; all agree- 
ments and bargains concerning merchandize, which shall not be 
the property of American citi^zens, are equally excepted from the 
benefit of said convention, saving, however, to such persons 
their claims in like manner as if this treaty had not been made." 
Such have been the provisions of the treaty of 1803, to satisfy 
our mercantile claims, the justice of which have scarcely ever 
been questioned, even by the government of France. On this 
subject I close my observations in referring the reader to the fol- 
lowing passage in Vattel : " Whoever uses a citizen ill, indirect- 
ly offends the state wliich ought to protect this citizen, and his 

* See 7th volume United States Laws. 



12 

sovereign should avenge the injuries, punish the aggressor, and 
if possible, oblige him to make entire satisfaction ; since other- 
wise the citizen would not obtain the great end of the civil asso- 
ciation, which is safety."* 

I come now to the policy and effects of the Louisiana pur- 
chase, a subject on which I have lightly touched in the pre- 
ceding article ; and when we come to consider the immense 
extent of our territory anterior to this union, our rights of com- 
merce on the Mississippi, with a place of deposit secifred 
and guarantied to us on the banks of that river, by the 
treaty of 1795, or the great source of contention produced by 
this purchase between us and that country, it is difficult to se- 
parate the policy of this act from French bias and influence ; 
for what else could authorize a policy of this nature. Anterior 
to this purchase, we were in the possession of as much territory 
as was consistent with the nature of our confederacy, and more 
than was necessary for our population ; the purchase was not 
necessary for the enjoyment of the navigation of the river, 
which would appear to have been intended by nature as a boun- 
dary for these states. 

Again : If the arguments of some of the members of the 
Virginia convention, on the adoption of the general government, 
pressed by talents of no ordinary kind, a convention too, made 
up of patriots, statesmen, and orators, unrivalled in the history 
of any country on earth ; I say, if these are entitled to any 
weight, certainly the enlarging our territory by the union 
«f Louisiana cannot be sanctioned by any sound principle of 
policy. In order to give adequate strength and energy to a go- 
vernment, the extent of territory should have some proportion 
to the nature of the government and state of population, nor 
will good policy ever sanction the extension of the territory of 
these states beyond those bounds which are consistent with the 
strength of the confederacy, the due operation of the laws, or 
the salutary government of a republic. 

We are now come to the examination of an article which 
may justly be deemed the climactic part of French influence in 
the United States, called the Milan and Berlin decrees ; a sub- 
ject which has recently created so much interest and attention 
in Europe and this country ; when I consider the very able 
tnanner in which it has already been treated, and the effects it 
has produced both at home and abroad, at this very critical 
period, I would be happy to pass it over in silence, if it did 
not form so prominent a feature in the political state of our 
country — if not a very important part of my history in detail- 
ing the French influence in these states— if, in short, our admi- 

*SecVatteI. 



13 

nistration had not been shamefully imposed on by the juggling 
finesse of these intriguing managers. I say our administra- 
tion, in contradistinction to government»— for let the administra- 
tion be right or wrong, on the subject of government, there can 
be but one voice and one will among the American people — and 
these must be in support of their government ; nor does the 
present state of our country present to us any prospect of re- 
moving our national evils, variant from that pointed out by the 
constitution, in a peaceable and religious exercise of all oup 
rights and privileges, as freemen, in the choice of the first ma- 
gistrate in the union. 

What, then, is the history of these decrees, in relation to the 
political and commercial interests of these states ? Considering 
the many engines and vehicles of power and influence, which 
have been made use of both at home and abroad, for years past, 
for the delusion of the people of these states, separated from 
the scene of action some thousands of miles, actively engaged 
in their respective pursuits, and actuated by a variety of inter- 
ests, prejudices, and passions, we cannot be surprised to find 
many well-meaning men easily imposed on, and but little ac- 
quainted with the true character of the French nation and its 
ruler, with his retaliatory decrees, or, using his own language, 
with his laws of nations, nor their baneful influence on the com- 
merce of the United States. His public professions for the 
freedom of the seas ; his juggling with our ministers, and the dif- 
ferent characters he has played by his minions, since the adoption 
of these decrees, sometimes by promises, and at other times by 
threats, certainly was calculated to promote that kind of imposi- 
tion. But there is no portion of our community who have taken 
the trouble to travel over the history of France, and explore the 
windings of this juggler, his legerdemain conduct in the man- 
agement of all foreign relations, but must know that he has been 
a primary cause in conducting the United States into their 
present state of a ruinous war, and that he is, at this moment, 
assiduously engaged in forming the groundwork of a continental 
alliance, which never can be brought about without effecting the 
destruction of our republic. Sooner shall the Leopard change 
his skin, or the Ethiopian his complexion, or nature her laws, 
than this exotic system of morals and policy shall harmonize 
with the religious and republican institutions of these states. 

At this advanced stage of a war, which has desolated the con- 
tinent of Europe, it is not necessary for me to draw a compara- 
tive view of the belligerents ; on this subject the world will 
judge. Certainly the aggressions of one nation to her innocent 
neighbom*, can never justify another to follow the example. 
The first measure complained of by France, and on the basis of 
which, she predicated the justification of her decrees, was the 



14 

British system of blockade, which was the natural consequence 
of her superior dominion on the ocean, a right, till now, sanc- 
tioned to all maritime powers by the laws of nations. Without 
pretending to detail anew this arbitrary code of plunder, I will 
notice but one article, which appears to form its pretext, 
and which is couched in the following language : " That 
England extends to ports not fortified, to the harbours and 
mouths of rivers, the right of blockade, which, according to 
reason and the usage of civilized nations, is applicable only to 
strong or fortified ports ;" as well might the British nation pre- 
tend to prescribe to the French a system of military operations 
jn beseiging those several towns, cities, and castles, which she 
Jias reduced during the present war, regulating the number of 
troops and degrees of military strength which she ought to bring 
into action ; by this I 'mean a discretion over her military ar- 
rangements, without going into the merits of her usurpations. 
If the British nation have adopted a system of blockade incom- 
patible with her maritime strength or arrangements, this goes to 
the policy of the measure as to herself; without questioning 
her right as to other nations. 

Again : If England has adopted, by sea, a system of 
blockade incompatible with her physical strength or arrange- 
ment, (for this is the great charge against her, and the os- 
tensible cause of the Milan and Berlin decrees,) however jus- 
tifiable her enemy might be in following her example on the 
same element, without the aid of a single vessel to support her, 
and however this conduct might be considered as a measure of 
retaliation par party certainly this never could justify a system 
of laws, warranting the invasion of the sacred rights of liberty 
and property of individuals ; of rapine, plunder, and confisca- 
tion, hitherto unheard of in the history of the laws of nations. 
Before the adoption of the Milan and Berlin decrees, who has 
ever heard, in the history of men or nations, of a land block- 
ade, subjecting the warehouses and private property of all kinds 
belonging to individuals, to confiscation ; using the language of 
the decrees,* as prizes of war, of a system of hostilities ; to 
seize the citizens and subjects of an enemy as prisoners of war, 
without the allegation of any crime, or giving them a reasona- 
ble time to depart with their goods and chattels ? To use the 
language of Vattel on this subject, " the sovereign declaring 
war can neither detain those subjects of the enemy who are 
within his dominions at the time of the declaration, nor their 
effects. They came into his country on the public faith. By 
permitting them to enter his territories, and continue there, he 
tacitly promised liberty and security for their return. He is 

* See tho Milan and BerUn decrees hereto anaexed. 



15 

therefore to allow them a reasonable time for withdrawing their 
effects, and if they stay beyond the time prescribed, he has a 
right to treat them as enemies, though as enemies disarmed. 
But if they are detained by insurmountable impediments, as by 
sickness, then, of necessity, and for the same reasons, a longer 
time is to be granted them at present ; so far from being wanting 
in his duty, humanity is still carried farther, and very often the 
subjects of a state against which war is declared, are allowed 
all the time for settling their affairs that can in reason be re- 
quired. This is observed in a particular manner with regard 
to mercantile persons, and care is taken to make provision for 
this branch, in treaties of commerce. The king of England 
has done more than this ; his last declaration of war against 
France, has these words : And tvhereas^ there remaining in our 
kingdom divers of the subjects of the French king^ we do hereby 
declare our royal intention to be., that all the French subjects 
who shall demean themselves dutifully towards us, shall be safe 
in their persons and ejfects"^ 

I have thought proper to make those few remarks in relation 
to the Milan and Berlin decrees, not so much to meet any plea 
offered in justification for the invasion of our neutral rights, for 
no solid one has ever been offered ; but, in a great measure, to 
remove every kind of argument which could sanction their 
adoption. 

Now, there existing no good cause, either in reason, in justice, 
or the laws of nations, to sanction the origin of these decrees, 
let us now examine into their effects on our commerce. 

Notwithstanding the British system of blockade was calcu- 
lated to curtail the commerce of France, still, not more so than 
might be expected from the superior power of the former on 
the high seas ; nor can it be forgotten, that at that time, the 
commercial state of our country was comparatively great, nor 
was the decrease of it perceived, till the adoption of these ob- 
noxious edicts — edicts, which have consigned so many of our 
citizens to confinement, and so much of our property to the 
flames and confiscation*— edicts, which have laid an example for 
the British nation to the adoption of a retaliatory system which 
has shut us out from the ocean. 

Such was the operation of the Milan and Berlin decrees on 
the commerce of the United States, preceding the existence of 
the orders in council, an interval of nearly twelve months ; and 
such have been their effects ever since with little interruption. 
On these I shall make no comments ; they have laid the founda- 
tion of a war between the United States and the British nation, 
which, I hope, both countries will soon bring to an honourable ter- 

* Fee V'attfl. 



16 

miuation. In giving the reader the history of the outlines of 
the Milan and Berlin decrees, I cannot pass by the countervail- 
ing system of our administration, which followed in the order of 
succession, being connected with our Chinese system of policy ; 
I mean the embargo of 1808, a system too deeply felt by all 
classes of the community, to be soon forgotten ; a system memo- 
rable in the annals of the American people for political imbeci- 
lity and national demoralization : — commerce ruined, our seamen 
driven into foreign service for want of employ ; seamen, per- 
haps, at this day engaged in a service opposed to their own flag ; 
a system peculiarly calculated to hold out every inducement 
for the commission of frauds and perjuries against the revenue 
of the United States. In order to prove this fact, we need only 
recur to the state of the Canadas, enriched by the trade of the 
St. Lawrence, and the maritime coasts of our seaports full of 
condemnations and forfeitures incurred by that obnoxious sys- 
tem. I cannot dismiss this part of my subject without noticing 
the patriotic sentiments of the brave and ever distinguished hero 
of Tripoli to his townsmen, in relation to it and its ruinous poli- 
cy : " Lift the embargo," says this immortal hero, " and leave 
commerce to shift for itself, and in spite of the imperial decrees, 
we have open a vast field for the display of this enterprise. 
We have the British ports every where ; Portugal and Spain ; 
the islands of Minorca and Majorca ; the whole of the Turkish 
coast up the Mediterranean, except Algiers ; the entire western 
and southern coasts of Africa ; the borders of the Red Sea, 
India and China ; Madeira, Teneriffe, and the Azores ; most 
of the rich islands of the West- Indies ; the Spanish and Por- 
tuguese coasts of South America ; the whole American coasts 
of the Pacific ocean ; and, which is more important, our own 
coafcts and our own fisheries, comprising more than four-fifths of 
the commercial coasts of the lour continents, and productive 
islands of the seas : Shall we forego all the advantages which 
could be derived from these sources of wealth, from the decrees 
of an adventurer, who has grown potent from incident, and 
whom the justice of heaven will throw back to impotence on his 
native island of rocks and sterility ; a mighty man of valour, 
who dares not send a bomb-ketch to sea through the dread of 
his enemy. Such humility is too degrading to the feelings of 
brave men and honest Americans." On the demise of the em- 
bargo law, the non-intercourse act came into existence, which I 
shall notice in due time. 

I now resume the subject of the Milan and Berlin decrees, 
in order to satisfy the reader by official documents, now be- 
fore the public, of the determination of the French to lead 
us into our present state. The unjust means they have made 
use of for that purpose, and their influence on our national 



17 

councils in the accomplishment of their object. The reader 
will recollect that soon alter the failure of our embargo law, 
a public resolution was published holding out an amicable in- 
ducement to the belligerents to take off their restrictive sys- 
tems, dated 1st of May, 1810. This resolution declared, that 
every part of our restrictive measures should cease to operate 
against that nation, which first showed us an amicable example 
by removing all embarrassments and restrictions from our com- 
merce, before 3d of March, 1811. It will not be forgotten 
that France soon after pledged herself, as a nation, to remove 
her decrees before that period ; and that England promised to 
follow. her example. That after their repeal was formally an- 
nounced to the President of the United States, every part of the 
non-intercourse act immediately ceased in its operation against 
France. Out of these national arrangements has arisen that great 
question which has hitherto occu])ied so much of the public 
attention, both at home and abroad, whether the French nation 
had rescinded her decrees before the 3d of March, 1811, and act- 
ed with good faith to the United States ? From the official commu- 
nications which have come before the public, and on the evi- 
dence of which we ought to judge, I think the presumption 
to be irresistible to every candid mind : 1st. That these 
decrees were in existence at that period. 2dly. Supposing 
that fact to be as it may, that on that occasion, France 
has acted with bad faith to the United States, so much so, 
that it would be more honourable to the government of that na- 
tion to acknowledge the fact, than deny it ; is not the presump- 
tion of their existence fairly to be adduced from a failure on the 
side of France, to produce the repeal ? Was it not her duty, 
and -in her power to do it ? Notwithstanding an elapse of 
several months, a volume of communications between the two 
countries on this subject, and of its great importance in the adjust- 
ment of our differences with England ; strange to be told, this 
instrument never has made its appearance before the American 
people, antecedent to the late declaration of war ; would it not be 
more honourable to confess her fraud, in relation to the repeal 
of these edicts, than continue an unparalleled system of outrage on 
our commerce^ to which nothing could give any justification 
than their existence ? Would it not be more dignified to con- 
fess the first wrong, than deny it by the commission of another ? 
The policy of the French government in holding out an appear- 
ance of the repeal of their edicts to the United States, has 
been proved by the result, to make an experiment of engaging 
us in a war with England, and in failure of which attempt, to 
retain in herself a kind of discretion, either to avow, deny, or mo- 
dify those decrees according to circumstances, and as mighf. 
appear most convenient to her intei'ests. Indeed, whether wr 



18 

consider the manner in which the information was given of this 
act, or the subsequent official communications disavowing it, 
or the failure of the government in giving publicity to an act so 
important, both at home and abroad ; or the amazing mass of 
our property seized, condemned, and burned, since the reputed 
time of their repeal ; it is difficult to say which affiDrds most proof 
of their existence subsequent to that period. If the Milan and 
Berlin decrees, forming the fundamental laws of the French em- 
pire, had been annulled before the above period, ought not the 
edict, or law be published for the benefit of her own subjects ? 
Ought it not for the use of her own prize courts, and for that 
of the commanders of her own cruisers, as a rule for their go- 
vernment ? Ought it not, for the satisfaction of the United 
States, who have suffered so much under their operation ? If 
such had been the fact, is it to be presumed that the French 
cruisers would capture and seize our property contrary to the 
imperial laws ? Or her judges condemn it on the basis of laws 
which had no existence ? Certainly not. And notwithstanding 
the avowal of Mr. Pinkney to Lord Wellesley, of the repeal of 
those edicts, still, in all this subsequent correspondence of many 
letters, the idea is disavowed. 

The first information we have on this subject is couched in a 
letter from Mr. Pinkney to Lord Wellesly, dated the 25th of 
August, 1810, informing him of the receipt of a letter from 
General Armstrong, minister at Paris, bearing date the 6th of 
that month, which announced to him the revocation of the Mi- 
lan and Berlin decrees in the following words : " Je suis auto- 
rise a vous declarer. Monsieur, que le decres de Berlin et de 
Milan sont revoques, et qu'a dater du ler Novembre ils ces- 
seront d'avoir leur effet." 

What are the subsequent communications relative to this re- 
peal ? Mr. Smith, in his answer to Mr. Pinkney on this subject, 
of the 19th of October following, tells him he has received his 
newspaper statement of a letter from the Duke of Cadore, noti- 
fying a repeal of those decrees, and in almost every other offi- 
cial letter the repeal is unsanctioned and unsupported. In the 
same letter Mr. Smith informs Mr. Pinkney, that General 
Armstrong made to him no communication at that time, on 
that subject. 

Again : In a letter from Mr. Smith^o General Armstrong, 
of 5th of June following, he speaks jof the repeal of those decrees 
in a prospective view. Using his own language : " He had 
not obtained an acceptance of the condition on which the French 
Government was xoilling to concur in putting an end to all edicts 
of both belligerents against our neutral commerce." And in 
another part of the same letter, Mr, Smith considers the repeal 
as a contingent thing. Speaking of the non-intercourse law, he 



19 

tells General Armstrong his opinion in relation to the repeal of 
those decrees, in an unequivocal manner, in the following 
words : *' Among the documents now sent is another copy of 
the act of congress, repealing the non- intercourse law, by au- 
thorising a renewal of it against Great Britain, in case France 
shall repeal her edicts." 

Again : what is the language of Mr. Munroe in his instruc- 
tions to Mr. Barlow on this subject, of 26th of July, 1811 ? " Is 
it free from doubts," he says, " although such is the light in 
which the conduct of France is viewed, in regard to the neutral 
commerce of the United States, since the first of November last, 
it will, nevertheless, be proper for you to investigate fully the 
whole subject, and to see that nothing has been, or shall be 
omitted on her part in future, which the United States have a 
tight to claim." Mr. Barlow, in his letter to Mr. Russel of 2d 
March, 1812, says, '* It seems, from a variety of documents 
that I have seen, and among others, the decision of Sir William 
Scott in the case of the ship Fox, that the British government 
requires more proof of the effectual revocation by the French 
government, of the Berlin and Milan decrees.*' Again ; Mr. 
Barlow, in his letter of 22d of said month, to the Duke of Bas- 
sano, remonstrates against French outrage on our commerce, by 
the burning and destroying our vessels, not only in violation of 
the Milan and Berlin decrees, but of the usages and customs of 
civilized nations.* With these proofs, I leave the reader to judge 
of the repeal of these decrees before the 3d of March, 1811. 

Presuming that I have adduced sufficient proof of the exist- 
ence of the Milan and Berlin decrees, long subsequent to the 
period in which they have been stated to be repealed, from the 
many official communications disavowing the fact, from the 
failure of the French in their publication, as well as the quan- 
tity of American property which has been seized, burned, and 
destroyed ;f I say, from all these circumstances, presuming on 
their existence subsequent to 13th March, 1811, I will now 
submit to the consideration of the reader a few remarks in 
relation to two other decrees, of posterior date, under the opera- 
tion of which, it is sometimes said, that the greater part, if not 
all of our property has been condemned since that period ; these 
are called the Bayonne and Rambouillet decrees : and for what 
purpose are these decrees set up as a plea ? Is it to justify the 
fraud ? No ; because no justification can be offered. Is it to give 
a better sanction to these decrees ? No ; for, if possible, they are 
more unjust : because the former decrees found some sanction 
or colouring in the measures of England against us, but these 

* See the official correspondence hereunto annexed, from the 25th of August 1?10, to 
the 12th of March, 1812. 

t See Mr. Barlow's letter of 12th of March, 1812, to the Duke of Bassano ; also, the 
communications of Mr. Russel, on the subject of French captures, burnings, &c. &c. 



20 

have no other pretext but our own measures of defence.— What 
then ? It was (per fas, aut nefas) to get us into a war with 
England by showing the compUance of France with these con- 
ditions, which were to be the sine qua non of peace. It was to 
give our administration some kind of a sanction to justify them- 
selves to the people of the United States for commencing our 
present state of hostilities against the British nation, the result 
of twelve years hard labour of the French government. 

The first of these is called the Bayonne decree,* and is said to 
take its sanction from our restrictive system of 1808, commonly 
called our embargo law, in an usurpation of the sovereignty of 
the United States, by a seizure and condemnation of all 
American properly floating on the ocean, amounting to some 
miUions of dollars. A vast number of American vessels, en- 
gaged in lawful voyages, on their return home, and which 
could not be in any manner affected by the embargo law, were 
seized, carried into French ports, and condemned as good prizes 
under the construction of the Bayonne decrees, on the presump- 
tion that they were English vessels, or if not English, they were 
Amei"ican, which were violating the laws of their own country. 

But of all decrees under which the French nation have claim- 
ed a sanction for the commission of outrage against reason, law, 
and justice, was the Rambouillet decree ;f and had we but the 
etimology of Dean Swift, I am sure it would be that of plain 
robbery. This decree was intended, and did make a general 
sweep of all American property within the reach or control of 
the French government, which was found in France or the do- 
minions of her usurpation. It was enacted the 23d of March, 
1810, and had a retrospective operation to the 20th of May, 1 809> 
with a view of making ^ good haul ; nor had it any other plea 
or sanction for its defence than our non-intertourse law : this is 
called, by tlie French government, the law of reprizals, though 
it is well known in the 1st place, that the non-intercourse law was 
a system of self-defence ; and, 3dly, That no French property 
was condemned under its operation. Had we not a right to 
regulate our own commerce, and for that end adopt such re- 
strictive systems as we deemed most prudent and expedient ? 
And in doing so, v/hat have we done to France to justify her to 
seize our property on the ocean ? What to justify her to condemn 
and place in her treasury the property of American merchants, 
transported to France on good faith, long before the existence 
of the Rambouillet decree ? The seizure of the property of indi- 
viduals, under such a plea, has no better basis to support it than 

* See the Bayonne decree, hereto anne xed. 
f See the RsunbouiUet decree, hereto annexed. 



21 

that of outrage, rapine, and plunder, unexampled in the history 
of men or n;uions : 1st. Because every nation has a right to make 
oiieh regulations as are necessary for her own safety, happiness, 
and defence. 2dly. The private property of individuals ought 
to be sacred. Sdiy. Because the Rambouiilfct decree has had a 
retrospective operation. With the exception of those countries 
which are bound to his yoke or chained to his car, what nation 
lias suffered more indignities, or been laid under a heavier con- 
tribution by the ruler of France, to the support of his continental 
system, than the United States ? 

In the year of '98 and 9, Messrs. Gerry, Pinckncy, and Mar- 
shal,* were refused an audience, and treated wiih the indignity of 
vassals, owing to their resisting the overtures of bribery and 
corruption; though their mission was for the adjustment of 
claims to the amount of millions. In the treaty of 1800, these 
claims were excluded. 

In 1803, fifteen millions of dollars were paid to the French 
nation on the score of settling some difference in relation to the 
boundaries of Louisiana, which originated with themselves, for 
indeed the territory can never be of much, if any, use to the 
United States. 

Under the Milan and Berlin decrees of 1806, we have been 
plundered of millions of property. 

Under those of Bayonne, in 1808, we have been robbed of 
enormous sums ; and in 1810 under the sanction of the Rambouil- 
let decree, all our property, which has either come within the 
reach of French cruisers by sea, or her control by land, 
throughout the continent, has been swept from us, by a general 
seizure and condemnation ; so that, on a moderate calculation, 
we n;ay say, withi.i bounds, that one hundred million of dollars 
would not indemnify the merchants of the United States, for 
the spoliations, rapine, and plunder, committed on their proper- 
ty, by the government of France during her present war ; and 
we shall have great reason to thank Heaven, if our once happy 
country, ere long, is not chained in a continental alliance ; if 
French mercenaries do not soon, like locusts, swarm over our 
land, to poison the minds of our families, and the rising genera- 
tion ; I mean those mercenaries who have so long derived their 
nutriment from plunder and human blood — ^nay, if our national 
destinies are not already fixed. When I mention French mer- 
cenaries, I mean no reflection on a nation once so distinguished 
for gallantry, urbanity, and pohteness of manners, and who, in- 
dividually, have so many claims on our community for honour 
and respect, both on account of their private and public virtues, 



♦ See the communications of Mr. Gerry, hereto annexed. 



but those who have distinguished themselves by crimes not more 
odious to Americans than Frenchmen ; I say, those who have 
waded in the blood of the best men of that country to 
power, nay, that ruler, whose ambition the empire of an entire 
world could not satisfy. 

By way of extending the chain of my argument on the sub- 
ject of French influence, I pass over from the decrees, to the 
affairs of Spain, a nation whose misfortunes and oppressions 
form a memorable epoch in the annals of the world ; for her 
noble defence of herself, her legitimate rights, and her altars, 
against tyranny and usurpation ; nor can the faithful historian 
separate from that epoch, the policy of our administration in 
their relations to France, without deviating from the strict rules 
of truth and justice. Connected in the straight line of French 
influence, the first public act of our administration, in relation 
to Spain, was the recent denial of her legitimate powers in the 
United States, owing to her misfortunes and oppressions : the 
policy of this act was evidently to widen the door of national 
dissention between the two countries, already opened by the sale 
of Louisiana — a policy which removed from Spain every kind 
of option of amicably adjusting and satisfying our claims — an 
option, rarely, if ever, denied to any individual country or na- 
tion before that period. Is not every individual, and every coun- 
try, by the laws and customs of civilized life, entitled to an 
amicable imparlance, before an appeal is made to arms ? Is 
not ever}' offender against the laws, entitled to a trial ; and is not 
his innocence presumed before he is found guilty ? Was not 
the Spanish nation entitled to this alternative ? Has this right 
not been extended to the belligerents of Europe for years, and 
until the vitals, the treasury, and patience of our country were ex- 
hausted ? Are not self-government and self-defence the inalien- 
able rights of every country ? Is not this a fundamental axiom 
©four government? If so, the inherent and legitimate rights of 
the Spanish nation, could not be impaired by the pretensions of 
a usurper, nor the exile of her king, nor by the change of her 
mode of government. Supposing the people of Spain should 
say, we wish to be governed by a king, a junta, or a cortes, does 
it remain with any other country to denj^ their right, or disavow 
their legitimate powers ? Again : If the wars of Spain arose 
from divers pretensions, emanating, in some measure, from the 
same legitimate source, then, indeed, there might be some plea 
for a disavowal of the national powers, till the legitimate rights 
were settled. But is this the case of Spain ? Certainly not. 
The ruler of France is by birth a Corsican ; he has no preten- 
sions of alliance either with the Bourbon race, or the Spanish 
nation : Does our alliance with Spain diminish by her misfortunes. 



23 

or our obligations grow less by her oppressions ? Ought we 
not, in the language of the Tyrian queen, to the disastrous 
Trojans, hail them as our brethren, struggling in the same 
cause, and say, we who have once suffered by misfortunes 
do now learn to feel for the misfortunes of others ? Does not 
every humane heart sympathize with the oppressed, and swell 
with indignation against the oppressor ? Is not this state of 
national abeyance, if I may so call it, novel in the history 
of men and nations ? Is it not inconsistent with every law 
of humanity ? or can its policy ever be separated from n 
strong bias for France evidently hostile to the commercuil 
interests of the American people ? The legitimate rights and 
powers of Spain are inherent in her as a nation, and cannot be 
affected either by the exile of her king, or the influence of 
his oppressor ; their recognition in the United States would 
have laid the foundation of a friendly negotiation, which would 
have terminated in an adjustment of all differences in both 
countries, cement their amicable intercourse, and in time con- 
centrate with us a considerable portion of the trade of South 
America. 

Before I dismiss the affairs of Spain, it may not be impro- 
per to take some notice of a kind of plea sometimes offer- 
ed in behalf of France, and indirectly of our administration, 
that the crown was ceded to his oppressor by the king of 
Spain : How fatal the delusion — ^how unfounded he fact ! As if 
the monarch of Spain could, without the consent of the people, 
transfer their legitimate rights, as a grocer would a barrel of 
sugar or a cask of wine. This idea is t09 vague to gain any 
credit, and the doctrir-^of transfer too abfeurd to require any 
serious refutation, even in the meridloijal days of fealty. 
Though William of Normandy came to England by an invita- 
tion of the people, and made his way to the crown by conquest, 
still a convention of the barons was deemed necessary to give a 
colouring to his title. And Cromwell, with all his influence and 
power, never dared to assume the title of king in that country. 
Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, the fact to be so, stilf 
the transfer must be null and void, for two reasons : 1st. Because 
it was made under the influence of duress ; and 2dly. Be- 
cause the right of transfer remained not in the king, but the 
people. 

The legitimate rights of self-government and defence are the 
inherent and inalienable rights of the Spanish nation ; rights which 
their Numantine ancestry so bravely defended against the Roman 
arms ; rights which they have so nobly sustained in blood, in 
slaughter, in fire and sword ; rights, for the maintenance of 
which, trusting to the justice of their cause, and the brave and 
magnanimous of all nations, by the aid of Divine Providence 



24 

they will ever maintain, defend, and support, against the tyrant 
of the world, and the oppressor of man. 

In this happy land is the cause of freedom and independence 
entirely forg-otten, or its effects buried in the tomb of oblivion. In 
the affairs of men and nations, is there no difference in the cause 
of the oppressors and the oppressed ? In these United States shall 
the time ever come when the faithful historian shall ttll poste- 
rity, that in the sunshine of freedom, there has existed an sera 
which has countenanced oppression against a brave people 
bleeding for their rights ? Or that a tyrant's hand could influence 
the public measures of a free and enlightened people ? 

We are now come to our restrictive measures of policy, com- 
monly called our non-intercourse act, memorable in the annals 
of eighteen hundred and ten, and our embargo system of eigh- 
teen hundred and twelve, to distinguish it from the act of 
eighteen hundred and eight. Let the object of these acts be what 
they may, whether as the means of preserving our property from 
seizure and condemnation, or the precursors of our present 
war, or both, as to their ultimate effects on the affairs of air 
country, time only can determine. Certainly, at this moment, 
so far from holding out to us any prospect either favourable or 
auspicious, they appear not only abortive, but adverse to the in- 
terest of the United States -, because, in the first place, they have 
been the efficient cause of draining the country of the means of 
carrying on a war ; and in the second place, they have locked 
up those means in the hands of our enemies. It is well known 
that the mercantile anticipation of the embargo law has exhaust- 
ed all the towns and cities on our seaboard, from the Provinc ; 
of Maine to Georgia, of all their provisions by shipments made 
to Spain and Portugal, and that these shipments have been ge- 
nerally sold for bills drawn on English merchants : that all these, 
and other funds, belonging to the United States, amounting to 
several millions of dollars, are now locked up by virtue of the 
non-intercoure law ; and on the event of returns made by the 
English merchants are subject to the seizure and condemnation 
of the British government by the laws of war. The repeal of 
the orders in council, which was well understood in both countries, 
to remove all our restrictive systems against the English com- 
merce, has and will tempt many English merchants to avail them- 
selves of an early opportuntiy of sending home our mercantile pro- 
perty, which must inevitably be lost, or forfeited, in consequence 
of the premature warlike position we have taken. If it should 
escape the British cruisers, it^ is forfeitable to the United States ; 
so that by our political arrang ments, our sinews of war have got 
into the possession of the very nation against which we have^ 
taken an hostile attitude. From all the public communications 
which have passed on the subject, have not the merchants of 



25 

England a right to presume our restrictive system removed, and 
the ordinary channels of our trade opened ? Are they not justifi- 
able on the basis of this presumption to lose no time in making 
shipments to the United States ? 

In this national state of things, of peace and of war, of right 
and of wrong, of even and of odds, we have the mortification 
of seeing our country in a state of war, and our means of carry- 
ing it on in the hands of our enemy, and the funds of our mer- 
chants liable to be forfeited by the laws of war, or to the United 
States, by virtue of our restrictive system. Situated between 
Scylla and Charybdis, there is no escape for the merchant. 

And what renders the conduct of our administration still more 
singular is, that they have been deciding on war measures at a 
period almost correspondent with the revocation of the orders in 
council, when the English nation were engaged in promoting 
the measures of peace. Why this hurry or precipitation ? Did 
the peculiar state of our country require it ? Was our country 
threatened with danger or destruction ? Were any of our rights 
at that particular moment invaded ? Have not our differences 
with the belligerents been a subject of negotiation for years ? 
Have we not waited for the Hornet nearly eight months, at 
an enormous expense, and what news has she brought but pro- 
mises ? Do not the journals of congress prove, by the many 
efforts made for a recess, in order to obtain the voice of the 
people on the subject of war or peace ? do not those records 
show the sentiments of Congress nearly balanced on this sub- 
ject ? And how has the scale been turned, whilst the destinies 
of our country were thus poised ? Was there no undue in- 
fluence made use of to defeat every proposition of adjournment, 
in the discussion of the subject of war ? Have not piles of pe- 
titions daily poured into the walls of Congress remonstrating 
against it ? Had the representatives of the United States, by a 
recess of Congress, an opportunity of consulting their constituents 
during the last session, and expressed their unbiased voice, instead 
of war, at this day, we should see the happy effects of peace, agri- 
culture, and commerce, every where diffused throughout the 
states. Have the English nation ever refused to remove her 
orders in council, whenever they obtained a satisfactory proof 
of the repeal of the French decrees ? Have they not repeated- 
ly demanded this proof? Have they not passed a declaratory 
act on this subject ? And whenever the French act actually- 
made its appearance, have they not acted with good faith to the 
United States ? Let us examine the answer of Lord. Welleslev 



26 

to Mr. Pinkney's letter on the communication of the repeal of 
those edicts.* 

Let the object of our administration be what it may, in in- 
volving their country in this novel kind of war, certainly there 
are few, if any, precedents to be found in the annals of history 
to give it sanction. The honour of a free and independent na- 
tion should be established on the basis of an honourable war j 
its policy ought to be liberal and dignified ; the rights defended 
on that element where they have been assailed ; and the means 
employed ought to be equal to the ends. Of the liberal pohcy 
of our maritime power and warfare, we have given the world a 
liberal example, in capturing an old widow- woman, her children, 
and a few barrels of fish.f After an obstinate engagement, and a 
display of much national bravery on both sides, without the loss 
of a single life, the old widow struck her colours, and was con- 
ducted to New- York with her children and fish, as a good prize, 
according to the laws of war. The most favourable result we 
can expect in our system of warfare, is the capturing of some 
merchant-men, perhaps the property of some honest traders 
who have never injured us ; what kind of impression can this 
make on a nation commanding the ocean, or what real advan- 
tage to the real interests of the United States ? Supposing we had 
Canada, at this moment, in our possession, (the conquest of which 
must cost the U. S. more blood and money than it is worth, and 
we know it cannot be garrisoned without considerable expense,) 
what should we do with it ? Should we attempt to reduce it to 
a province ? This would be incompatible with the genius and 
principles of our government ; nor would the inhabitants submit 
to such a condition. Should \re attempt to make a distinct repub- 
lic of it ? It would be unequal to its own defence. Should we 



* Lord Welltshy to Mr. Pinkney. 

Foreign Office, August 3Ist, 18I». 

SIR, 

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, under date of the 25tb 
instant. 

On the 23d of February, 1808, his majesty's minister in America, declared to the go- 
vernment of the United States, " his majesty's earnest desire to see the commerce of the 
world restored to that freedom which is necessary for its prosperity, and his readiness U< 
abandon the system which has been forced upon him, whenever the enemy should retract 
the principles which had rendered it necessary." 

/ am commanded by his majesty to repeat that declaration, and to assure you, that 
whenever the repeal of the French decrees shall have actually taken effect, and the com- 
merce of neutral nations sJiall have been restored to the condition in which it stood pre- 
viously to the promulgation of those decrees, his majesty rvillfeel the highest satisfaction 
in relinquishing a system which the conduct of the enemy compelled him to adopt. 

I have the honour to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most obedient 
and humble servant, 

(Signed) WELLESLEY. 

William Pinkney, Esq. 

t A small vessel, called the Industry, was lately taken as a priae by the privateer 
called the Benjamin Franklin, having oa board an old widow woman, owner, and her 
family, with a few barrels of fish. 



27 

join it to our confederacy ? This would be incompatible either 
with the energy of a republic, or the salutary operation of the 
laws. Perhaps^ after a seven years war, and the loss of much 
blood and treasure, like the conquests of Frederick, we would 
be glad to get rid of it for one third of what it cost us. With 
these observations, comprising an historical sketch of the politi- 
cal conduct of the administration of our country, for nearly the 
period of twelve years, we leave the reader to judge of French 
influence in the United States ; of the treatment of our envoys ; 
of the capturing, plundering, and burning of our vessels ; of 
the confinement of our seamen ; of draining our treasury ; and 
finally, ot involving our country in a war, in our present un- 
prepared situation. I will now proceed to the illustration of my 
two other propositions. 

That a continental alliance with France, at this time, is in- 
compatible with the political safety of our country, and that all 
cause of national gratitude to that country, has long since 
*eased. 

On the event of such an alliance, what are the prospects of the 
United States, respecting those rights which were purchased by 
the blood of our ancestors, of liberty, of property, of life ? Let 
the French arms make what impression they may on the British 
nation, still this could have no other effect on the destinies of 
the United States, than of chaining them to her continental sys- 
tem of bondage. In the first place, the ruler of France, availing 
himself of that appearance of friendship, under the mask of 
which he has annihilated all the republics of Europe, would ex- 
act of us a continental contribution, and lead us into his conti- 
nental system ; and certainly, considering the extraordinary acts 
he has hitherto performed by extraordinary means, there is no- 
thing unreasonable in the anticipation of such fears and dangers : 
On the event of such an alliance, he would lay his pretensions 
to a portion of our aid, to support him in carrying on a war, 
which contemplated the restoration of our maritime rights — 
in his own language, the freedom of the seas. Would there 
be any thing more extraordinary in his insisting on such a de- 
mand, than many others which he has exacted of other nations ? 
Would it not be more plausible and consistent with the laws of 
nations, than those sums which he has robbed our citizens of by 
sea and by land, under the sanction of his arbitrary decrees — than 
the large sums which he has obtained from our treasury by 
management ? By such an alliance, what are we to gain ? Are there 
any of our national rights which he can protect on that element 
where they are invaded ? Where is his strength on the ocean ? 
Again : This mask of friendship would afford him a pretext of 



28 

overpowering our country with his military troops, bred to arms 
and to plunder, like the Norman armies, transported into Britam, 
or his own armies into Spain, under the pretext of supporting the 
laws and settling our intestine divisions ; they might be trans- 
ported in thousands, and, perhaps, at some period of time, give 
us a Norman conqueror. I wish not to prophesy ills, but the 
progress of French arms on the continent of Europe, the man- 
ner of effecting her conquests, her intrigue and management 
both at home and abroad, and her conduct to ourselves, added to 
the unbounded ambition of her ruler, warrant us to dread her as 
an ally, and guard ourselves against future evils. But let us 
suppose that the result of this alliance was to effect the downfall 
of England and her dominion on the ocean ; what would be 
the situation of the United States, in relation to her neutral 
rights and forms of government ? Where is our security ? Is it 
in the arms of France, or her ruler ? What protection can we 
expect of him for our rights, who has long since banished all 
kind of freedom from the continent ; who has never observed* 
good faith with any country, nor regarded any principle of 
morals either sacred or divine ? What species of freedom can 
we expect of him, who reduced within his grasp, France, Italy, 
Switzerland, Prussia, Holland, Germany, with parts of Portu- 
gal and Spain ? Will he observe more moderation by sea than 
by land ? Will the nature of the element change his character, 
moderate his ambition, or soften his tyrant heart ? 

What a noble umpire for adjusting the freedom of the seas ! 
From such umpirage, and such kind of freedom, may heaven, 
in its infinite mercy, protect the American people and the civi- 
lized world. On such a deplorable event, all rights, all laws, 
and all governments would yield to the ruler of France, and the 
tyrant of the continent. Like Alexander, he would weep be- 
cause he had no other world to conquer. 

These are the considerations which induce us to believe that 
a continental alliance is incompatible with the interests and safe- 
ty of the United States. It now remains for us to make a few 
remarks on the old and trite plea of national gratitude, for 
those services rendered us by our faithful ally, the king of 
France, during the late revolutionary war, as if the murderers 
of that ill-fated monarch, or the usurper of his crown, could 
have any just claim or pretensions to his merits ; how fatal the 
delusion — how fallacious the reasoning — how unfounded the 
claim ! Our national obligation to that country has long since 
ceased by the death of her king. Our late war cost him his life : 
those troops which he sent to promote the American cause, re- 
turned with those revolutionary principles which effected the 
destruction of himself, his throne, and his family. It was from 
the king of France we obtained the assistance ; it was to him the 



29 

national obligation was clue, and by his death the national obli- 
gation became extinct ; indeed, ii we consider the policy which 
directed that monarch on that occasion, and the intentions of the 
donor, a just rule for the measurement of gratitude, there could 
be but little due to the monarch himself. The policy of the do- 
nation was to weaken England, and not promote our cause. The 
king of France, though a good man, was not a republican in 
principle, nor could he have an)'' other object in view, in assist- 
ing the American cause, than that of weakening his enemy. 
On the principles of policy alone, he co-operated with the Ame- 
rican people in establishing their independence. 

I now proceed to my 3d proposition, to show, that a northern 
policy of agriculture and commerce is the true policy of the 
United States ; and that nature and art have, in a great measure, 
destined the northern states for the pursuits of the latter. So 
far from entertaining the least disposition of encouraging or en- 
livening those jealousies which have so long existed between the 
northern and southern states, we wish to see them removed ; 
the interests of both are respectable and important on the scale 
of the union ; but in forming a comparison, we cannot be surpris- 
ed to find the preponderance, whether we consider the situation, 
the clime, or civil institutions; on the east and north of those states, 
the people early settled on the seaboard ; they soon became accus- 
tomed to commerce and the arts, and their political institutions 
were well calculated to promote a spirit of enterprise, with a 
general diffusion of knowledge. To the south, neither the climate 
nor natural advantages were so inviting or favourable for those 
pursuits ; there the people soon turned their attention to plant- 
ing and raising such articles as were not less discouraging to po- 
pulation than friendly to slavery ; hence we can easily account 
for the overbalancing physical strength and commercial interests 
of the north : in order to prove this, we need only turn our atten- 
tion to every part of our seaboard, nay, of the entire commercial 
world. 

But let me now ask, where is the pretext for the continuance 
of this war at the present moment ? If the orders in council were 
the only foundation for its commencement, they exist no more ; 
If we are not now under the influence of France— if we are not 
now yoked to her continental system — if the fate of this country is 
not decided, why continue the effect after the removal of the cause? 
If our national ends are accomplished, have we not a right to ex-^. 
pect an immediate restoration of peace, of agriculture and com- 
merce ? However we may appreciate our laws, constitution and go- 
vernment, which we are resolved to maintain, we have no hesita- 
tioiT solemnly to declare to the world, that we never can, nor ever 
will submit to any continental alliance, calculated, not only to make 



30 

us a party in a European war, but ultimately to destroy our inde- 
pendence, and entail slavery on our posterity. Besides, this war can- 
not be maintained without a revenue ; and how is this revenue to 
be raised ? Our loan is not yet filled up, nor is the present state of 
our finance equal to the ordinary expenses of government. From 
our foreign imposts we cannot calculate a great deal, they now 
nearly amount to a prohibition of the articles on which they are 
laid ; nor are our domestic imposts encouraging or popular : In 
a former administration a stamp act gave great dissatisfaction to 
the people, nor were they contented till it was repealed. Our 
whiskey tax gave rise to one or two insurrections, in which one 
of our French cabinet is said to have been a party. As to a land 
tax, it is very unpopular, and ought not to be resorted to, except 
in cases of real necessity. The farmer cannot pay it unless he 
can sell his produce, nor the merchant without the sale of his 
merchandize, nor the mechanic without vending his manufac- 
tures, nor the labourer without employment. Besides, the man- 
ner in which our war has been declared, the means of bring- 
ing it about, the removal of the cause which gave it existence, 
and the peculiar situation of our country ; the character it has 
assumed both at home and abroad, proves stronger than lan- 
guage can express, the invincible dispositions of the people of 
both countries to peace ; and instead of being appalled by those dan- 
gers, fears and alarms which are inseparable from warfare, we 
find them engaged in their peaceable ordinary pursuits, without 
any kind of interruption or alarm ; our families undisturbed ; our 
sea polls, though unprotected, as yet remaining sacred ; our 
Canada expedition in a state of amity, and our few vessels of 
war safe on the ocean, though in a great manner environed by 
our enemy. So that notwithstanding all our declarations, for- 
mulas, and fulminations, thank heaven, we are still in the en- 
joyment of all the blessings of peace throughout the imion, saving 
and excepting within a few miles of the capital, where there ex- 
ists a war of rebellion against the majesty of the laws and the 
constitutional rights of the people. The pulse of our nation is 
at present peaceable, her pursuits are equally so, and nothing less 
than the justice of her cause can ever rouse her energies into ac- 
tion ; she justly appreciates her rights, and is always ready to 
avenge her wrongs, but will never hazard her safety with a mili- 
tary despotism. By rescinding the orders in council subse- 
quently to the publication of the Milan and Berlin decrees, the 
conciliating disposition of the enemy, and the pacific character 
which the war has assumed both at home and abroad, the policy 
of France is now defeated, and the period cannot now be far dis- 
tant when we shall see the natural channels of trade opened, and 
our commercial enterprise reinstated and flourish throughout the 
union. Let us only suppose that we had taken our present hos- 



tile positioh against France, possessing the maritime powers of 
England, what would be our situation, of our seaboard, of our 
cities, of our towns, of our families, of our sanctuaries, of 
our altars ; judging from the history of continental Europe, 
certainly we could not flatter ourselves with the hopes of es- 
caping from the ravages of war, from the dangers of French 
arms, rapacity and plunder. 

Edmund Burke has prophesied the destruction of the liberties 
of France, and another great man has admonished the people of 
the United States to guard against her principles, influence and 
intrigue, as highly dangerous to our moral and political institu- 
tions. We have seen the prophesies of the former fulfilled, and 
experience has taught us ever to respect and venerate the admo- 
nitions of the latter. 

Having taken this summary view of the three propositions, 
which we have promised to prove, of French influence in the Uni- 
ted States, of the dangers of a continental alliance with that 
country, of the expediency of adopting a northern policy of 
peace, agriculture, and commerce, what now remains but to sub- 
mit to the reader the policy of committing the helm of govern- 
ment in the hands of some individual of energy, talents, and 
virtues equal to its management, by an amalgamation of all par- 
ties in the union friendly to this peaceable and prosperous policy 
for which nature has destined those states. 

Could we but call up from the grave, or rather invite from the 
mansions of bliss, our Washington and Hamilton, there could be 
but one opinion amongst the American people as to this choice. 
We said from the mansions of bliss, because they were inseparable 
on eai'th" — they are so in Heaven : the goddess of discord would 
vanish, and we would soon have a revival of our golden 
age ; but in this lif&they exist no more ; their destinies are fixed 
in a better world, and like orphan children we were left to 
mourn. W^hen it pleased Heaven to remove Washington, Ha- 
milton was left : in the loss of the father there remained a conso- 
lation and hopes in the son : but when Hamilton was removed, the 
nation was left without hopes or consolation : in his fall she lost 
her intrepid soldier, her incorruptible patriot, her profound states- 
man, her briUiant advocate, and her best friend. Like the 
young PoUio, he died soon, the hopes and admiration of 
the American people. The Romans lamented the loss of Pol- 
lio from the hopes of his future greatness ; whilst the virtues 
of Hamilton had engraven on the hearts of the American people 
his memory in characters more durable than marble or brass : in 
spite of time and mortality, which bury all earthly things in the 
tomb of oblivion and of death, he lives in the memory of a grate- 
ful people ; and our national misfortunes, instead of obliterating 
his name, like the shades of a fine portrait, only tend to brighten 



32 

his virtues in the annals of the American empire. Pollib 
died by the hand of death, a source of great consolation to 
the Roman people, whilst Hamilton fell by a ruthless hand, a 
victim of disappointed ambition, now marked and punished with 
the indignation of the new and the old world — a criminal ambition, 
levelled with the dust, and like the fall of Lucifer, never to rise 
again. 

In vain do we look to the north, the south, the cast, and the 
vvest, for a Washington, for a Hamilton !— In vain for their prin- 
ciples, without their firmness, energy, and decison of character. 
A great general, ought not only to be equal to plan, to guide and 
direct an army in all its operations, but to encourage them by 
his example, to participate in their fatigues, their haidships, 
their toils and their privations, and, in short, to lead them to the 
field : and if we are driven to the dilemma, either to have our 
evils continued, or avail ourselves of such means as we can get 
for their removal, certainly the alternative of our choice is obvi- 
ous. In ordinary occasions, it is proper to avail ourselves of our 
family physicians, because they have the best knowledge of 
our constitutions ; but in desperate cases, it is prudent and wise 
to call in the assistance of other physicians of skill and experience, 
in order to the removal of our complaint. And when we consi- 
der the very critical situation of our county, both at home and 
abroad, environed with foreign and domestic difficulties, stand- 
ing on a precipice which threatens us with immediate destruc- 
tion, the indeviable attachment of our administration to a system 
of politics which has been the source of all our national evils, the 
combination of southern and western states and interests, of local 
situation, of state supremacy, of office, of caucus, of court, calcu- 
lated to entail on us all the miseries of a feudal system — I say, 
when we consider a combination of interests and influence like 
these, it is vain to flatter ourselves with the hopes of removing 
our evils without exertion, and resorting to those means which 
are likely to favour our undertaking, by an amalgamation of all 
parties and interests of the union, friendly to the restoration of 
peace, agriculture, and commerce of the north. On the ground 
of pretensions, perhaps there is no other state has claims superior 
to those of the state of New- York ; in the scale of rotation, of 
agriculture, of population, and commercial enterprise ; and judg- 
ing from the reputation of that gentleman whom she has selected 
to guide the helm of goverment, the ability and talents with which 
he has hitherto distinguished himself in the discharge of many 
and important state offices ; although we differ from him in some 
points, we know of no candidate, at this moment, who possesses 
so many necessary ingredients to the fulfilment of that office, nor 
more likely to attain it, than the object of their choice. We 
are informed, that he is an avowed advocate for the restoration 



33 

of peace, agriculture, and commerce of the north j and that he 
possesses energy, talents, virtue, and information, equal to the 
management of the government of the United States. 

We now proceed to the exposition of what is called a con- 
gressional caucus, and its effects on the rights of the people. 
To one who has been accustomed to examine the application and 
effect of a congressional caucus, no further than simply the meet- 
ing of a body, to recommend a favourite candidate to the presiden- 
tial chair, this assembly would appear to be a harmless thing ; 
in itself, certainly it bears on the face of it nothing unconstitu- 
tional or injurious to the freedom of election ; but tracing it up 
to the prophesy of the Virginia convention, and the policy 
of the south, the various interests which it contains, form- 
ing a kind of a feudal system, it will be found an engine of 
power, more dangerous than is generally thought. A caucus is 
a congressional combination of particular states, to perpetuate 
the presidential power in a favourite individual of a particular 
state, for a succession of terms, in violation of the rights of the peo- 
ple. In order to bring this into maturity, there are several in- 
terests conjointly in operation, arising from local situation, from 
state, from office, from court, transmontain and foreign. 

Have the owners of property at the city of Washington no in- 
terest in supporting and continuing in office, a president of their 
own neighbourhood, possessihg a local bias ? Who is more likely 
to establish the permanency of the seat of government, so often 
threatened to be removed, than a southern president ? 

Has not the state of Virginia, for many years, claimed a 
state supremacy? Hab she not manifesved that spirit to a con- 
siderable degree in her convention ? Has she not given three 
presidents to the United States ? and have they not presided, 
in the line of succession, since the adoption of the general govern- 
ment, with the exception of four years i Has not Mr. Jefferson 
given way to Mr. Madison ? Is it not contemplated that Mr, 
Madison is to make room for Mr. Monroe, and in the order of 
succession, Mr. Monroe for some other Virginian ? 

Have the office holders throughout the union no interest in the 
support of their own patron ? Has he not removed the veterans of 
seventy-six, who, badly clad and badly paid, bore the bleak winds 
of the north, and scorching sands of the south, to establish the 
independence of their country ? 

Have our Washington court levies no influence on our con- 
gressmen—the constant attention of the drawing room, the court- 
ly manners of Mrs. Madison, her affability, her politeness, her 
elegance and her ease ? 

Again : Have the western states no influence on the policy of 
a caucus ? Are they not considered the balancing states of the 



34 

union? Has not the prtserit secretary of state* in the Virginia 
convention, prophesied a combination between them and the 
southern states, calculated to usurp the rights of the people, and 
continue a favourite president in office for life ? Have not his 
predictions been verified, and does he not himself now act on the 
basis of them ? Have the French nation no influence in the 
councils of a caucus ? Is not Mr. Gallatin a Frenchman, or what 
is the same, a Genevan ; and has he no prejudice or partiality 
for his native country, and no interest in the cabinet ? Is not the 
history of our country for twelve years fraught with French in- 
fluence and intrigue ? Such are the interests, and such the com- 
bination and influence, which, for the period of nearly four years 
preceding our presidential election, arc cementing and co-ope- 
rating to produce a congressional caucus. 

We cannot close this treatise without dropping a tear of con- 
trition and condolence on the fate of a country destined by di- 

*_Mr. Monroe, 'after a brief exordium, in which he insisted, that on the judicious or- 
ganization of the executive power, the security of our interest and happiness greatly de- 
pended ; that in the construction of this part of the government, we should be cautious in 
avoiding the defects of other governments, and that our circumspection should be com- 

mensuraie to the extent of the powers delegated ; proceeded as follows : The president 

ought to act under the strongest impulses of rewards and punishment, which are thft 
strongest incentives to human actions. There are two ways of securing this point. He 
ought to depend on the people of America for his appointment and continuance in 
office: He ouglit also to be responsible in an equal degree to all the states ; and to be 
tried by dispassionate judges: His responsibility fcught further to be direct and immediate. 
Let us consider in the first place th' n, how far he is dependent on the people of 
America. He is to be elected by electors, in a manner perfectly dissatisfactory to my 
mind. I believe that he will owe his election, in fact, to the state governments, and not 
to the people at large. It is to be observed, that congress have in their power to appoint 
the time of choosing the electors, and of electing the president. Is it not presumable 
they will appoint the times of choosing the electors, and electing the president, at a con- 
siderable distance from each other, so as to give an opportunity to the electors to form a 
combination p If they know that such a man as they wish, for instance the actual presi- 
dent, cannot possibly by elected by a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, 
yet if they can prevent the election by such majority, of any one they disapprove of, and 
if they can procure such a number of votes as will be sufficient to make thfir favourite 
one of the five highest on the list, they may ultimately carry the election into the gene- 
ral congress; where the votes in choosing him shall be taken by states, each state having 
one vote. Let us see how far this is compatible with the security of republicanism. Al- 
though this state is to have ten, and Massachusetts eight representatives, and Delaware 
and Rhode-Island are to have but one each, yet the votes are to be by states only. The 
- consequence will be, that a majority of tlie states, and these consisting of the smallest, may 
elect him. This will give an advantage to the small states. He will depend thereforr 
on the states for his re-election and continuance in office, and not on the people. Doe? 
it not bear the complexion of the late confederation ? He will conduct himself in accom- 
modation to them, since by them he is chosen, and may be a^ain. If he accommodate? 
himself to the interest of particular states, will not they be obliged by state policy to sup- 
port him afterwards p Let me inquire into his responsibility if he does not depend on th^' 
people. To whom is he responsible p To the senate, his own council. If he makes a 
treaty, bartering the interests of his country, by whom is he to be tried p By tiie very per- 
sons who advised him to perpetrate the act. Is this any security ? I am persuaded thai 
the gentleman who will be first elected, may continue in the office for life. 
_ The situation of the United States, as it applies to the European states, demands atten 
tion. We may hold the balance among those states. Their western territories are con- 
tiguous to us. What we may do without any offensive operations may have considera- 
ble influence. Will they not then endeavour to influence his general councils p May we 
not suppose that tliey will endeavour to attach him to their interest, and support him. in 
order to make him serve their purposes ? If this be the caae, does not the mode of election 
present a favourable opportunity to continue in office the person that shall be president 
1 am persuaded they may, by their power and intrigues, influence his re-election. 



35 

vine providence for the prosperity and happiness of man; a 
country reduced to ruin and destruction by foreign influence and 
faction, possessing a territory and soil as yet unexplored, a clime 
calculated for almost every kind of production, a coast of nearly 
two thousand miles, a natural boundary against invasion, our sea- 
board commanding the first harbours in the world, our forests 
full of the materials necessary for shipping and commerce, citi- 
zens of unrivalled enterprise, numberless lakes, streams, and 
rivers, inviting the pursuits of agriculture and exportation of our 
produce. But what is the destruction of our commercial pursuits, 
compared with those scenes of horror and dismay which we have 
lately witnessed in the United States ; scenes unparalleled in the 
history of nations, not excepting France, in the most convulsive 
and barbarous state of her revolution ?— -we mean the shameful 
prostration of the faithful and constitutional sentinels of the rights 
of the people — the liberty of speech, and the liberty of the press ; 
mobs tolerated with impunity to rise into a state of rebellion 
against the majesty of the laws, in the presence of the civil au- 
thority, and almost within th« view of the executive, and, with 
volcanic rage, to spread around them dismay, death, ruin, and 
destruction ; our fellow citizens murdered, butchered, and man- 
gled ; their dwellings, no longer their sanctuary, levelled to 
the ground. In the Democracies of Greece and Rome, we 
are furnished with examples of mobs in times of scarcity 
of provisions, of oppression and tyranny ; but who has 
ever heard of them rising in the support of government, 
in opposition to the laws and constitution, in a land of milk 
and honey ? Is not our government equal to protect itself, 
or does it require the aid of mobs i If our administration is 
sound, it will bear the test of public examination, nor can it be 
injured by the press ; if it is rotten, its impurities ought to be 
laid before the people. Is not the liberty of thfe press the un- 
alienable right of every citizen in this country ? Is not this right 
guarantied by our constitution ? What greater security for an 
honest and impartial administration of political justice ? What 
stronger barrier against human ambition ? Have we not a consti- 
tion in this country for the protection of our rights ? Have we 
not laws for the punishment of crimes ? and have we not a go- 
vernment for the execution of laws ? Have we not a system of 
jurisprudence established throughout the union for the trial of 
offences ? and have not the peaceable citizens of the United 
States a right to presume that the outrage of Baltimore has arisen 
from no ordinary source or occasion ? 

The sudden destruction of this monster in the city of New- 
York, argues much in favour of the peaceable habits of the peo- 
ple of that place, as well as the civil authority ; and in a particu- 
lar manner the latter, whose energy on this, as well as other oc- 



36 

casions is highly commendable, and cannot fail to supply the fu- 
ture historian with materials of eulogium. With Herculean 
strength this monster was strangled in its birth, and it is hoped 
fvrill never revive in the United States. 

In this summary view which we have taken of the political state 
of our country, including a period of nearly twelve years, in 
which, we flatter ourselves, that we have not altogether failed in 
the performance of our promise to the reader, in exposing French 
influence in the United States ; the many dangers of forming an 
alliance with that nation at this time, and the wisdom of adopt- 
ing the policy of the north, so congenial to the restoration of 
peace, agriculture, and commerce. We now close our observa- 
tions on this subject, with just impressions of the obligations due 
to the laws, constitution, and government of our country, which 
vre shall never cease to support and maintain ; and at the same 
time, with a proper sense of that solemn duty which we owe to 
ourselves, to the rising generations, and unborn millions, never 
to yield to any power^Jforeig'n or domestic^ our constitutional and 
unalienable rights, the liberty of speech, and the liberty of the 
press. 

CAMILLUS. 



APPENDIX, 



CONSISTING OK 



SELECT PAPERS 



RE PORT 

Of Mr. Pickering-, Secretary of State, on the transactions 
relating to the United States and France, 

The points chiefly meriting attention are the attempts of the 
French government: 

1. To exculpate itself from the charge of corruption, as hav- 
ing demanded a douceur of fifty thousand pounds sterling, 
(222,000 dollars) for the pockets of the directors and ihinisters, 
as represented in the despatches of our envoys. 

2. To detach Mr. Gerry from his colleagues, and to inveigle 
him into a separate negotiation ; and 

3. Its design, if the negotiation failed, and a war should take 
place between the United States and France, to throw the blame 
of the rupture on the United States. 

1. The despatches of the envoys published in the United 
States, and republished in England, reached Paris towards the 
last of May ; and on the 30th of that month, the French mi- 
nister, Mr, Talleyrand, affecting an entire ignorance of the per- 
sons designated by the letters W. X. Y. and Z.— calling them in- 
triguers, whose object was to deceive the envoys— writes to Mr. 
Gerry, and " prays him immediately to make known to him 
their names." ' 

Mr. Gerry, in his answer of the 31st, wishes to evade Mr. 
Talleyrand's request ; and with reason, for he and his colleagues 
had " promised Messrs. X. Y. that their names should in no 
event be made public." Mr. Gerry, in his letter of October 1st, 



38 

in noting the repetition of Mr. Talleyrand's request for those 
names, states as an objection to giving them up, " that they could 
be otherwise ascertained ;" and that Mr. Talleyrand's messen- 
ger, admitting the fact that they were already known, immedi- 
ately mentioned their names. Mr. Gerry nevertheless certified 
in writing the names of X. Y. and Z ; with the reserve " that 
they should not be published on his authority :" and besides for- 
mally certifying to Mr. Talleyrand the names of his oxvn private 
agents^ added, that " they did not produce, to his knowledge, 
credentials or documents of any kind."—" Credentials" in xvri- 
ting were certainly not to be expected to be produced by agents 
employed to make corrupt propositions : but Mr. Gerry had Mr. 
Talleyrand's own assurance that Mr. Y. was acting by his au- 
thority. It is recited in the envoy's despatches, and upon Mr. 
Gerry's own report to his colleagues, that on the 1 T'th of Decem- 
ber, IfOr, Mr. Y. "stated to him that two measures which Mr. 
Talleyrand proposed, being adopted, a restoration of friendship 
between the republics would follow immediately ; the one was a 
gratuity of Jifty thousand pounds sterling ; the other a purchase 
of thirty two • millions of Dutch rescriptions," and after con- 
versing on these topics, Mr. Gerry and Mr. Y. rode to Mr. 
Talleyrand's office, where " Mr. Gerry observed to Mr. Tal- 
leyrand, that Mr. Y. had stated to him that morning, some pro- 
positions as coming from Mr. Talleyrand, respecting which, Mr. 
Gerry could give no opinion," and after making some other ob- 
servations, Mr. Talleyrand answered, " that the information 
Mr. Y. had given him (Mr. Gerry) was just, and might always 
be relied on^^ This declaration stamps with the ministers au- 
thority all the communications made by Mr. Y. to the envoys. 
And Mr. Y. himself, who is Mr. Bellamy, of Hamburg, in his 
public vindication, declares, that " he had done nothing, said 
nothing, and written nothing, without the orders of Citizen Tal- 
leyrand." The same may be asserted in regard to Mr. X. for 
he first introduced Mr. Y. to the envoys ; and his separate com- 
munications were substantially the same with those of Y. and 
both together were present with the envoys when the communi- 
cations were more than once repeated. 

It also deserves notice, that in stating the preliminary demands 
of the French government, the private agents, X. and Y. and the 
minister, use a similar language. The agents declare, that the 
directory are extremely irritated at the speechof the president, 
and require an explanation of some parts of it, and reparation 
for others ; that this must give pain to the envoys, but the di- 
rectory would not dispense with it : and that as to the means of 
averting the demand concerning the president's speech, the en- 
voys must search for them, and propose them, themselves. Be- 
ing asked to suggest the means, the answer is " wcn^ i/"— the 



39 

purchase of the Dutch rescriptions, and " the fifty thousand 
pounds sterling, as a douceur to the directory." 

The ininister told the envoys, that the directory were wounded 
by the president's speech ; and, in his conversation with Mr. 
Gerry on the 28th of October, said, " the directory had passed 
an arret, which he offered for perusal, in which they had de- 
manded of the envoys an explanation of some parts, and a repa- 
ration for otiiers, of the president's speech to congress of the 16th 
of May, 1797 ; that he was sensible that difficulties would exist 
on the part of the envoys relative to this demand ; but that by 
their offering money he thought he could prevent the effect of the 
arret. Mr. Z. (the " interpreter") at the request of Mr. Gerry, 
having stated that the envoys have no such powers, Mr. Talley- 
rand replied, they can in such case take a power on themselves ; 
and proposed that they should make a " loan." But this " loan," 
as will presently appear, did not mean the " money," which 
would " prevent the effect of the arret." Mr. Gerry then making 
some observations, on the pov^ers of the envoys — that they " were 
adequate to the discussion and adjustment of all points of real 
difference between the two nations ; that they could alter and 
amend the treaty ; or if necessary, form a new one ;" added, 
" that as to a loan, they had no powers whatever to make one, 
but that they could send one of their number for instructions on 
this proposition, if deemed expedient :" — " That as he (M. Tal- 
leyrand) had expressed a desire to confer with the envoys indivi- 
dually, it was the wish of Mr. Gerry, that such a conference 
should take place, and their opinions thus be ascertained." " Mr. 
Talleyrand, in answer, said, he should be glad to confer with the 
other envoys, individually, but that this matter about the money 
imist be settled directly without sending to America ; that he 
would not communicate the arret for a week ; and that if we 
could adjust the difficulty respecting the speech, an application 
would nevertheless go to the United States for a loan :" Now 
this matter of the money that must be settled directly ^ could only 
refer to the douceur ; for a loan in the purchase of millions of 
Dutch rescriptions, or in any other form, could only be the sub- 
ject of a stipulation to be afterwards fulfilled by the United 
States ; but the douceur of fifty thousand pounds sterling, was 
a sum within the immediate reach of the envoys ; for their 
credit would certainly command it : in fact, a mercantile house 
had offered to answer their draughts : and this, Mr. Talleyrand 
unquestionably well knew ; for it was a member of the same 
house who first introduced the minister's agent, Mr. X. to Gene- 
ral Pinckney, in the manner stated in the envoys' despatches. 
A collateral evidence that in *' this matter of the money that 
must be settled directly," Mr. Talleyrand referred only to the 
douceur^ arises from this circumstance : The very next day 



40 

(October 29th) Mr. X. called on the envoys, and said, " Mr. 
Talleyrand was extremely anxious to be of service to them, and 
had requested that one more effort should be made to induce us 
to enable him to be so." After a great deal of the same conver- 
sation which had passed at former interviews had been repeated, 
the envoys say—" the sum of his proposition was, that if we 
would pay by way of fees (that was his expression) the sum of 
MONEY demanded for private use, the directory would not re- 
ceive us, but would permit us to remain in Paris as we now 
were ; and we should be received by Mr. Talleyrand, until one 
of us could go to America^ and consult our government 07i the sub- 
ject of a LOAN." 

Although the envoys' despatches, and the facts and circum- 
stances herein before stated, cannot leave a doubt that X, as well 
as Y and Z, was well known to Mr. Talleyrand, it will not be 
amiss to add, that on the 2d of December X, Y, and Z, dined 
together at Mr. Talleyrand's in company with Mr. Gerry ; and 
that after rising from table, the money propositions, which had 
before been made, were repeated, in the room and in the pre- 
sence, though perhaps not in the hearing of Mr. Talleyrand. 
Mr. X put the question to Mr. Gerry in direct terms, either, 
** whether the envoys would now give the douceur''^ or " whether 
they had got the money ready." Mr. GeiTy, very justly offend- 
ed, answered positively in the negative, and the conversation 
dropped. 

Mr. Z, who has avowed himself to be Mr. Hauteval, was the 
person who first made known to the envoys the minister's desire 
to confer with them individually, on the objects of their mission : 
He it was, who first introduced Mr. Gerry to Mr. Talleyrand, 
and served as the interpreter of their conversations : and in his 
letter to Mr. Talleyrand, at the close of Mr. Gerry's document. 
No. 25^ he announces himself to be the agent of the minister, to 
make communications to the envoys. 

Mr. Hauteval declares " his sensibility must be much affected 
on finding himself, under the letter Z, acting a part in company 
with certain intriguers, whose plan, (he says) it doubtless was to 
take advantage of the good faith of the American envoys, and 
make them their dupes :" yet this person the avowed agent of 
the French minister, apparently so anxious to screen himself 
from the suspicion of an agency in soliciting the bribe required 
by Mr. Talleyrand, did himself urge a compliance with that cor- 
rupt proposition.* 

* Extract of a letter, dated June 15th, 1798, from Mr. King, minister of the United 
States in London, to the secretary of state. 

" Colonel Trumbull, who was at Paris soon after the arrival there of the commissioners, 
has more than once informed me, that Hauteval told him that both the douceur and the 
loan were indispensable, and urged him to employ his influence with the American co m- 
missionereto offer the bribe as well as the iow." 



41 

The sensation which these details irresistibly excite, is that 
of astonishment at the unparalleled effrontery of Mr. Tal- 
leyrand, in demanding of Mr. Gerry the names of X, Y, and Z ; 
after Y had accompanied him on a visit to the minister, xvtifi 
ivhoni the conversation detailed in the printed despatches then 
passed^ and who then assured Mr. Gerry " that the information 
Mr, Y had given him was just, and might always be relied on ;" 
after Z had in the first instance introduced Mr. Gerry to the 
minister, and served as their mutual interpreter, and when the 
conversation between them had also been stated in the despatches ; 
and after X, Y, and Z, had all dined together with Mr. Gerry 
at Mr. Talleyrand's table, on rising from which, X and Y re- 
newed the proposition about the money ! — The very circum- 
stance of Mr. Talleyrand's being continued in office, after the 
account of these intrigues had been published to the world, is a 
decisive proof that they were commenced and carried on with 
the privity, and by the secret orders of the directory. It was to 
accomplish the object of these intrigues that the American en- 
voys were kept at Paris unreceived, six months after their cre- 
dentials had been laid before the directory : and it was only be- 
cause they were superior to those intrigues, and that no hopes 
remained of wheedling or terrif) ing them into a compliance, that 
two of them were then sent away — and with marks of insult 
and contempt. 

2. The fact that the French government attempted to inveigle 
Mr. Gerry into a separate negotiation will not be questioned : 
at first it was made privately, and under an injunction oi secrecy 
towards his colleagues : it was afterwards plainly insinuated by 
the minister, in his letter of the 18th of March, 1798, in which 
he tells the envoys that the executive directory was disposed to 
treat with one of the three ; and that one he openly avowed, ia 
his letter of the 8d of April, to be Mr. Gerry. The pretence 
for selecting him was, that his " opinions, presumed to be more 
impartial, promised, in the course of the explanations, more of 
that reciprocal confidence which was indispensable." But when 
before have their " opinions'^ been stated as a justifiable ground 
for rejecting the ambassadors of peace ? Ambassadors too, of es- 
tablished probity, whose characters were of the first distinction in 
their own country, and whose demeanour, towards the govern- 
ment to which they were deputed^ was decent and respectful ? 
Who had, with a frankness which the candour of their instruc- 
tions warranted, communicated the important points which they 
contained ? And who unremittingly, and with the most anxious 
solicitude, entreated that the negotiations might be commenced ? 
What more proper or more honourable qualities ought ministers 
deputed to negotiate with a foreign nation to possess ? But why 
shoidd a foreign government question the opinions of the ambas- 



SaJoi'S sent to negotiate with it on subjects of diff'erence betweefj 
the two nations ? If wisely chosen, and faithful to the interests 
of their own country, they must of course possess different 
opinions from the government to which they are sent, the differ- 
ing opinions maintamcd by the two nations on their respective 
rights and interests being the cause and objects of the negotia- 
tion. A government really disposed to treat on fair pi-inciples 
would never object to the opinions of foreign ambassadors. It 
would receive them, and appoint its own ministers with proper 
powers to treat with them, propose its terms, and receive those 
offered ; and discuss both : and if then they could not agree, put 
an end to the negotiation. The French government did not wish 
to negotiate^ it desired to impose a treaty on the United States. 
To this practice it had been accustomed towards the minor pow- 
ers in Europe, whom it had subjected to its will : and it expected 
equal submission fi-om the United States. Hence Mr. Talley- 
rand's secret declaration to Mr. Gerry, " that if he would nego- 
tiate, they could soon finish a treaty ; for the executive directory 
xvere not in the habit of spending much time about such matter s^ 
Hf nee the objections to Gen. Pinckney and Gen. Marshall : they 
manifested a discernment superior to the intrigues of the French 
government, and an invincible determination not to surrender the 
honor, the interest, or the independence of their country. It 
was necessary then to get rid of them ; and seeing that neither 
despair of negotiating, nor studied indignities, could induce them 
to quit their posts, passports were sent to them to quit France : 
it was with difficulty that General Pinckney could obtain permis- 
sion to stay two or three months for the recovery of his sick 
daughter, to whom an immediate voyage would probably prove 
fatal. Unembarrassed by the presence of these envoys, the 
French government, if it really desirecT a treaty on any terms, 
hoped to prevail on Mr. Gerry to negotiate separately, although 
from the first overture he declined and continued to decline it. 
But after the expulsion of his colleagues, it hoped by its seduc- 
tive arts to prevail over his scruples and gain his consent to terms 
which, while they were present, would be rejected ; or at all 
events to retain him, with the semblance of negotiating, regu- 
larly or informally, and thus keep the United States in the torpor 
of indecision, without preparation for offence or defence. Un- 
fortunately, Mr. Gerry was induced, by the threats of im- 
mediate war against the United States, to separate from his col- 
leagues and stay in Paris ; threats which, viewed with their 
motives, merited only detestation and contempt. Four or five 
months before, the threats of immediate orders to quit France, 
and the terrors of war in its most dreadful forms, had been held 
up to all the envoys, to frighten them into a compliance with the 
groundless, unjust, and corrupt demands of the French govern- 



43 

ment. Those threats had not been executed, and the unworthy 
purposes for which they had been uttered had been obvious. 
Happily for the United States, the character of the French go- 
vernment, as deUneated in the official despatches of all the envoys, 
and the knowledge of its conduct towards other countries, whose 
governments it had overturned, and whose people, in the names 
of hberty and equality, it had enslaved, so operated, as not to 
leave us exposed to all the evils which suspense was calculated to 
produce. Mr. Gerry indeed resisted all the arts of the French 
minister to entice him into a formal negotiation, after that govern- 
ment had driven his colleagues from Paris : a negotiation which 
in Its nature would have been a surrender of our independence, 
by admitting a foreign government to choose for us the minister 
who should represent our country, to treat of our important rights 
and interests, which that government had itself violated and 
deeply injured. 

The directory and their minister, Mr. Talleyrand, hoped a-'» 
expected that General Pinckney and General Marshall ^v^se 
voluntarily have quitted France, after the minister's letter ^^'J" 
18th March, in which he made the offensive distinction b /.(^en 
them and their colleague, Mr. Gerry, on the pretence that his 
*' opinions'' were more " impartial" than theirs. Accordingly 
Mr. Talleyrand, in his letter to Mr. Gerry of the 3d of April, 
says—" I suppose, sir, that Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall have 
thought it useful and proper, in consequence of the intimations 
which the end of my note of the 18th of March last presents, to 
quit the territory of the republic." Yet Mr. Talleyrand had 
given them neither passports nor letters of safe conduct! The 
fact is, the French government wished to avoid the odium of 
sending them away, and the blame of a rupture, which Mr. Tal- 
leyrand predicted would be the consequence ; while it was pri- 
vately intimated to them that they must leave the country. The 
minister's conduct on this occasion, towards General Marshall (as 
detailed in his journal) was particularly marked with indignities. 
When it was observed to Mr. Talleyrand, that this was not the 
manner in which a foreign minister ought to be treated, Mr. Tal- 
leyrand replied, that General Marshall was not a foreign minis- 
ter, but was to be considered as a private American citizen ; and 
must obtain his passport like others through the consul. To this 
it was answered, that General Marshall was a foreign minister,*^ 
and that the French government could not deprive him of that 
character, which was conferred upon him, not by Mr. Talley- 
rand, but by the United States; and though the directory might 

* On the ninth of October 1797, the day after the Envoys had delivered to the minister 
a copy of their letter of credence, " cards of hospitality were sent to them and their se- 
cretaries, in a style suitable to their official character." [Despatches, p. 17.] And in the 
minister's letter to them of the 18th of March 1798, he calls them "the Commissioners afld 
Envoys Extraordinary of the United States of America,"— [Despatches, p. 92,} 



44 

refuse to receive or to treat with him, still his country had clothed 
him with the requisite powers, which he held independently of 
France ; that if he was not acceptable to the French government, 
and in consequence thereof, it was determined to send him away^ 
siill he ought to be sent away like a minister ; that he ought to have 
hi j passports, with lettersofsafe-conduct,which would protect him 
from the cruisers of France. Mr. Talleyrand replied, that if Gen. 
Marshall wished for a passport, he must give in his name, stature, 
age, complexion, &c. to the American consul, who would obtain a 
passport for him : that with respect to a letter of safe-conduct, 
it was unnecessary, as no risk from the cruisers would be incur- 
red. The result of these conversations was a plain demonstra- 
tion of the intention of the minister, that in consequence of his 
intimation at the close of his letter of the 18th of March, that 
J^he " opinions" of two of the envoys were not agreeable to the 
gf^vemment of France, Generals Pinckney and Marshall should 
ranc'"/'^^^^^ ?o themselves the character which the minister had 
tiate ' generally. The envoys, aware of this snare, in their an- 

,j.^ J, the third of April, to the intimation that " the directory 
was V. >sed to treat with one of the envoys," declare to the 
minister, " that no one of the envoys was authorized to take 
Upon himself a negotiation evidently entrusted to the whole," 
and *' that no two of them could propose to withdraw themselves 
from the task committed to them by their government, while 
there remained a possibility of performing it ;" but that if " it 
should be the will of the directory to order passports for the 
whole or any number of them,'* it was desired that such pass- 
ports might be accompanied with letters of safe-conduct, to pro- 
tect them against the cruisers of France. 

These endeavours of the French government, whether real or 
affvCted, to draw Mr. Gerry into a separate negotiation, consti- 
tute the substance of the correspondence between him and Mr. 
Talleyrand. They appear to merit consideration in several 
points of view. 

1. Because if real, it was only in the hope and expectation, 
that by intrigues and terrors the French government might in- 
fluence Mr. Gerry to enter into a formal treaty, on the terms 
which he and his colleagues had repeatedly rejected, as incompa- 
tible with the interest, honour, and independence of their coun- 
try. For at this time, Mr. Talleyrand had not renounced the 
demands of loans and a douceur as the indispensable preliminaries'^ 
of a treaty. Accordingly, we see Mr. Talleyrand, in his letter 
of the 3d of April, to Mr. Gerry, propose " to resume their re- 
ciprocal communications upon the interests of the French repub- 
lic and the United States of America." And in his letter of 
|uly I2th, to Mr. Gerry, having mentioned the arrival at Havre 



45 

of a packet, the Sophia, from the American government, he says, 
'' until then I never supposed you entertained the design of em- 
barking before we had come to an agreement upon the definitive 
articles to be ratified by your government." 2. Because if that 
government had so far succeeded, it would have insisted on its 
I'atification by the president and senate, on the ground constantly 
taken by Mr. Talleyrand, that the powers of the envoys being 
several as well as joints Mr. Gerry when alone^ even after the 
French government had ordered his colleagues to leave France^ 
were adequate to the formation of the treaty ; and that there- 
fore the pubUc faith would be violated, if it were not ratified. 3. 
Because under such circumstances, the French government 
doubtless calculated at least on a division of the public opinion 
in the United States in favour of the ratification of such a trea- 
ty ; by means of which it might enforce the ratification, or effect 
still greater mischiefs, 4. But these endeavours to draw Mr. 
Gerry into a formal negotiation are chiefly remarkable because 
they were persevered in during near five months, against his con- 
stant, direct and positive refusals to treat separately ; Mr. Tal- 
leyrand asserting and Mr. Gerry denying the competency of his 
powers. 

We have seen the envoys, from the 6th of October, 17'97', 
the date of their first letter to the French n inister, to the 3d of 
April, 1798, when their last was delivered to him, expressing 
their earnest desire to enter upon and prosecute the great busi- 
ness of their mission : we have seen them during that long pe- 
riod patiently enduring neglect and indignities, to which an ar- 
dent zeal to re-establish harmony and peace could alone induce 
freemen to submit : we have seen them while held in suspense— 
neither received nor rejected — yielding to the importunities of 
private agents of the French government, and hearing and dis- 
cussing their propositions, insulting as they were, in the hope 
that when these should be shown to be utterly inadmissible, 
others founded in reason and equity, and in the usual course of 
diplomatic negotiation, might be lorought forward. Doubtless 
they also wished, when their astonishment at the first overtures 
had subsided, by listening still longer to such dishonourable 
propositions, to ascertain the true character of the French go- 
vernment. We have seen them, after waiting five weeks from 
the presentation of a copy of their letters of credence, entirely 
unnoticed, " solicit an attention to their mission," and soliciting 
in vain. Thus denied an official hearing, they hoped by an unu- 
sual step to excite the attention of that government ; they de- 
termined to transmit to the minister a letter representing the 
views of their own government in relation to the subjects in dis- 
pute with France. This letter, dated the 17th, was delivered 
the 31st of January, 1798. Waiting near a month without aa 



46 

answer, and " still being anxious to hear explicitly from Mr. 
Talleyrand himself, before they sent their final letter, whether 
there were no means, within their powers, of accommodating 
our differences with France, on just and reasonable grounds, — 
on the 27th of February they desired '' a personal interview on 
the subject of their mission ;" and afterwards a second inter- 
view. They remark on what passed at these meetings, " that 
the views of France, with regard to the United States, were not 
essentially changed since their communications with its unoffi- 
cial agents in the preceding October." 

At length they received Mr, Talleyrand's letter of the 18th 
March, 1798, in answer to theirs of the 17th of January. The 
minister's letter represented the complaints of France ; as usual, 
charging the American government with the inexecution of the 
treaties with France — with dissimu/atio?i~-'ins\nu.a.ting that our 
tribunals were subject to a secret injluence — holding up the Bri- 
tish treaty as replete with evil and injury, and " the principal 
grievance of the republic."— Accusing the American government 
of a wish to seize the first favourable occasion to consummate 
an intimate union with Great Britain, and suggesting that a de- 
votion and partiality to that power have long been the principle 
of the conduct of the federal government. 

To this letter of the French minister, the envoys sent their re- 
ply on the 3d of April. This reply and their former letter de- 
tect the sophisms and erroneous statements of the minister— ex- 
pose his naked assertions — refute his arguments— -repel his ca- 
lumnies' — and completely vindicate the fidelity, the justice, and, 
as a neutral power, the impartiality of the government of the 
United States ; and, at the same time, exhibit the weighty and 
well-founded complaints of the United States against the French 
republic. 

Hitherto, instead of a desire to obtain a reconciliation, we can 
discover in the French government only empty professions of a 
desire to conciliate ; while it haughtily refused to receive our 
€nvoys, and during six months disregarded their respectful and 
ardent solicitations to negotiate : and after one of them, whom 
it induced to remain in France, had declared that " he had no 
powers to treat separately^ that the measure was impossib/ey" 
then the Directory expelled the other two ! 

If now we survey Mr. Gerry's individual correspondence, we 
shall find no solid evidence of any change in the disposition of 
the French government. 

In his first letter to Mr. Gerry, Mr. Talleyrand's artifices are 
visible : he addresses him as " Envoy Extraordinary of the 
United States of America, to the French Republic ;" and pro- 
poses to him to " resume their reciprocal communications." Mr. 
Gerry, apprehending that the Minister intended to draw him in* 



47 

to a negotiation, repeats what he had often before declared, that 
for him to treat separately was impracticable ; and that he can 
only confer with him informally. 

On the 20th of April, Mr. Gerry addresses a letter to the 
Minister, and presses him to come forward with propositions 
for terminating all differences, restoring harmony, and re-es- 
tablishing commerce between the two nations. He receives 
no answer. On the 28th he confers with the minister, who 
says he cannot make propositions, because he does not know 
the views of the United States in regard to a treaty. Mr. 
Gerry gives him the information. He then promises in three 
or four days to deliver Mr. Gerry the project of a treaty : 
this promise was never performed. On the 12th of May, 
the new instructions of March 23d, sent by the Sophia 
packet, reached Mr. Gerry ; and he gave immediate notice 
to the minister that he should return to America in the So- 
phia, as soon as she could be fitted for sea. 

" On the 24th of May, the minister sent his principal secre- 
tary to inform Mr. Gerry, that his government did notxvish to 
break the British treaty ; but expected such provisions as would 
indemnify France, and put her on a footing with that nation." 
Yet that treaty had been made, by the French government, its 
chief pretence for those unjust and cruel depredations on Ame- 
rican commerce, which have brought distress on multitudes, and 
ruin on many of our citizens ; and occasioned a total loss of 
property to the United States of probably more than twenty mil- 
lions of dollars ; besides subjecting our fellow-citizens to insults, 
stripes, wounds, torture and imprisonment. And Mr. Talley- 
rand, in his letter of the 18th March, to the envoys, declared 
that treaty to be "the principal grievance of the Republic/* 
But now, instead of breaking that treaty, France desires to be 
put on the same footing. This the United States would at any 
time have done, and the envoys were now explicitly instructed 
to do : and seven months before, all the envoys, in their con- 
versation with Mr. Bellamy (Y) the confidential and authorized 
agent of the French minister, told him " that he might be assur- 
ed that their powers were such as authorized them to place 
France on equal ground with England, in any respects in which 
an inequality might be supposed to exist at present between them, 
to the disadvantage of France." 

The Secretary also mentioned the claims of the American 
citizens on the French republic : he said if the latter should be 
unable to pay them, when adjusted, and the United States would 
assume and pay them, France would reimburse the amount 
thereof. This has the semblance of candour : but on the 4th of 
March, when the envoys were in conference with Mr. Talley- 
rand, and they disclosed their principal instructions, *' General 



48 ' 

Pinckney and Mr. Gerry told him they were possitively forbid* 
den to assume the dtbts to our own citizeus, even if we were 
to pay the money directly to them." And doubtless it was 
because the proposition was already known to be inadmissi- 
ble that it was now renewed. 

The secretary and Mr. Gerry had also some unimportant 
conversation about the consular convention. And it is plain 
that the whole object of the secretary's visit was to amuse, 
by keeping alive Mr. Gerry's hopes of some pacific arrange- 
ments. 

On the 26th of May, Mr. Gerry had a conference with the 
minister ; pressing on this, as on former occasions, the necessity 
of sending a minister to the United States, with powers to ne- 
gotiate ; to which, he says, the minister acceded ; but after- 
wards explained himself to mean a minister to reside there after 
the ratification of the talked- of treaty. 

Such are the proceedings of the French government, by its 
minister, Mr. Talleyrand, before the arrival of the printed des- 
patches of the envoys. We discover nothing but a proposition 
for treating with Mr. Gerry alone— which he had repeatedly de- 
clared to be impossible — and on terms which Mr. Gerry himself, 
as well as the other envoys, had long before pronounced to be 
utterly inadmissible, because directly repugnant to their instruc- 
tions. We shall now see, by an examination of Mr. Gerry's 
subsequent communications, that the publication of the en- 
voys' despatches, far from causing a discontinuance of nego- 
tiations with him, or any change in the disposition of the French 
government more unfriendly to the United States, incomparably 
greater zeal lor negotiating was exhibited afterwards than 
before. 

On the 30th of May, the minister announces to Mr. Gerry 
the publication of the envoys' despatches. In his letter of the 
27th of June, he says, this incident only *' for a moment sus- 
pended the principal object" — the negociation with Mr. Gerry ; 
and in his letter of June 10th, he declares, that " the French 
government, superior to all the personalities, to all the manoeu- 
vres of its enemies, perseveres in the intention of conciliating 
with sincerity all the differences which have happened between 
the two countries." On the 18th of June the minister sends 
him a plan for conducting the negotiations ; for the first time 
states the " three points,'* on which he says, " all negotiations 
between France and the United States must essentially rest ;'* 
and " gives (what he calls) a large development" of them ; 
concluding by pressing him to remain at Paris , to accelerate the 
negotiation--" the drawing together of those ties which the 
French republic and the trus Americans have regretted to see 
telar.ed.^^ 



49 

On the 2ft\\ of June the minister again writes to Mr. Gerry, 
itnd in language the most importunate, such as had never before 
been used, urges him not to withdraw, " when the French go- 
vernment, superior to all resentments, and never listening to any 
thing but justice, manifests itself anxious to conclude a solid and 
mutually satisfactory agreement." The minister even observes, 
that the first of the " three points" mentioned in his preceding 
letter (respecting amicable declarations about mutual recrimma- 
lions) might be postponed — that the third (about the consulai^ 
convention) would doubtless experience no diffictilty on either 
side, after the second should be amicably settled : that it was to 
the second therefore they should first attend ; it being so much 
the more important, as it embraced the source of all the diifer- 
ences between the two nations. And on the 22d of July, the 
minister renounces all demands of " loans and explanations on 
the subject of speeches ;" and even affects to be hurt that Mr. 
Gerry should have mentioned them : although both he and his 
private agents had, before, so long and so obstinately persever- 
ed in demanding them of the envoys, as the indispensable pre- 
liminaries to a negotiation. And doubtless it is partly owing to 
the publication of their despatches, thereby exposing to the 
world those shameless demands, with the scandalous proposi- 
tion of the douceur, that they are now relinquished. 

In adducing these circumstances to show the increased zeal 
of the French government, since the publication of the despatches, 
to negotiate on its differences with the United States, it is not to 
be understood, that they afford a shadow of evidence of its since- 
rity. But as professions, verbal or written, furnished the only 
ground on which Mr. Gerry could form his opinion, that " be- 
fore the arrival of the despatches of the envoys, the minister was 
sincere and anxious to obtain a reconciliation," much more, pro- 
fessions stronger and more importunate, afterwards made, afford 
pvoportionably higher evidence of sincerity. But the present de- 
tails demonstrate that all those professions were merely ostensi- 
ble. In the minister's last mentioned letter, after saying that his 
" second point'' was most important, " as it embraced the source 
of all the differences " and that to this they should j^r^f attend—- 
he purposely forgets it, passes over it, and sends Mr. Gerry a note 
on the consular convention, of all possible subjects in difference 
the most insignificant ; as it would have expired by its own limi- 
tation in two years and a half ; within which time, the commerce 
of France, judging from its present state of annihilation, would 
probably not furnish a single ship to visit the ports of the Unit- 
ed States. In his next letter, dated July 6th, he pursues his 
speculations on the consular conventioji, and sends Mr. Gerry 
two more notes upon k ; complaining that he had not transmitted 
to him his opinion upon his first note, and recommending the 

G 



50 

two last to his attention : although Mr. Gerry had repeatedljr 
and positively declined z formal discussion, such as the minister 
now urged in writing. Mr. Gerry states also that this first note 
of the minister on the consular convention, was sent to him six 
weeks after he had demanded his passport, and when his baggage 
was actually on board the Sophia ! 

In a word, the more clearly the impossibility of entering on a 
formal negotiation appeared, the more was it pressed by the 
French minister. Mr. Gerry in his letter to Mr. Talleyrand of 
July 20th, as justly as pointedly exposes the boasted zeal of the 
minister — " You was the first, you affirm, to press seriously the 
negotiation : you will agree with me that the merit would have 
been greater, had the measure itself heen feasible.^* Again he 
says to the minister, " You frequently remind me of your exer^ 
tions, [to negotiate] which I am disposed as much as possible to 
appreciate, regretting at the same time their circuitous direc- 
tion. 

From this detail of facts, the following are the necessary con- 
clusions : 

That by the exclusive attentions of the minister to Mr. Gerry, 
the French government intended to excite the jealousy of his 
colleagues, to promote dissensions between them, to separate him 
from them, and induce him to remain in France ; expecting 
either to seduce him into a formal negotiation of a treaty, on 
terms exclusively advantageous to France, and injurious and dis- 
honourable to the United States ; or, failing in this, to hold the 
United States in suspense, and prevent any measures for our se- 
curity—in the event of a war ; while we, amused and deluded by 
warm but empty professions of the pacific views and wishes of 
France, and by " informal conferences,'* might w^ait in spiritless 
torpor, hoping for a peaceful result : and 

That by this course of proceeding — this ostentatious display of 
zeal to adjust differences, and restore harmony and a friendly in- 
tercourse between the United States and France, the French go- 
vernment intended, in case of a rupture, to throw the blame on 
the former. 

If I were to allpw myself to make any further reflections on 
the conduct of Frahce towards the United States, it would be 
to illustrate the truth of Mr. Barlow's assertion. That the 
French government determined to fleece us. If the French 
government " listened (as Mr. Talleyrand says it does) to 
nothing but justice," ahd really desired a reconciliation, it would 
have proposed tojixsome measure of satisfaction for the injuries 
it said it had received. Or if too proud to propose to us, at 
least it would have prescribed to itself, some limit to reprisals ; 
or at any rate, it would not have spurned us from its presence, 
when we respectfully presented ourselves, sought a reconcilia- 



51 

tion, and offered to make a just satisfaction for every injury wc 
had committed. And if (as Mr. Talleyrand asserts) " the 
French government has not ceased to ofFur the exact justice it 
demands," it would also ha%'e permitted us to state our claims.- — 
But it would have been so easy to ascertain all the damages we 
had done ; and their amount would have been so small ; even if 
we agreed to pay for all English, Spanish, and Dut<:h vessels 
brought by French cruisers into our ports, while all those 
nations were at war with France — a few of which the justice 
of the federal courts, in vhidication of the sovereignty of the 
United States y rescued from the hands of the French consuls, 
agents and privateersmen ; and if to that amount we also added 
ten times the value of the miserable corvette Le Cassius, a ves- 
sel which had been unlawfully fitted out for war in the United 
States, but which has been the burden of every note from Adet's 
in 1795, to De la Croix's and Talleyrand's in 1796 and 1798, the 
amount of the whole, it was known, would be so 6?;m//— the 
French government did not choose to have it ascertained : for 
then the injuries done by the French to the commerce of the 
United States must also have been examined and adjusted : and 
when adjusted, paymeM must have been made or stipulated : 
but in this, the French government, doubtless thought " it would 
find only a real disadvantage :" the amount of its own demands 
deducted from those of America, would hardly seem to have 
diminished the latter. 

Such a mutual adjustment would also have been accompanied 
with a settlement of all questions and disputes about the con- 
struction of treaties, and all other subjects of difference : but in 
this also the French government, upon its own system, ** would 
have found a real disadvantage." For it would have vastly re- 
duced the field for pi-ivateering in the European seas ; and in the 
West Indies it would have been nearly annihilated : for there, 
for every vessel taken from the enemies of France, her cruisers 
have probably captured twenty belongmg to the United States, 
But the French government, by always abstaining from making 
specific demands of damages— by refusing to receive our mini- 
sters — by at length proposing to negotiate in a mode which it 
knew to be impracticable— with the person who had no powers, 
and who therefore constantly refused to negotiate — and thus 
wholly avoiding a negotiation — it has kept open the field for 
complaints of wrongs and injuries, in order, by leaving them un- 
defined, to furnish pretences for unlimited depredations.— In this 
way " it determined to fieec€ us :" In this way it gratified its 
avarice and reveng-e—<iTid it hoped also to satiate its ambitio7i. 
After a long series of insults unresented, and a patient endu- 
rance of injuries, aggravated in their nature and unexampled in 
their extent — ^that governmeat expected our final submiasioa to 



52 

its v;ill. Our resistance has excited its surprise ; and as cer- 
tainly increased its resentment. With some soothing expres- 
sions, is heard the voice of wounded pride. Warmly professing 
its desire of reconciliation, it gives no evidence of its sincerity ; 
but proofs in abundance demonstrate that it is not sincere. From 
standing erect, and in that commanding attitude requiring impli- 
cit obedience — cowering, it renounces some of its unfounded 
demands. But I hope we shall remember " that the tyger 
crouches before he leaps upon his prey.*' 

Department of State, 1 

January 18, 1799. J 

TIMOTHY PICKERING. 



[TRANSLATION.] 

Parisy 11th Prairialy Q>th year of the Republic^ 
one and indivisible* (May 30, 1798.) 

The Minister of Exterior Relations, 

To Mr. Gerry, Envoy of the United States. 

I Communicate to you, sir, a London gazette of the 36th 
of last Floreal CMay 15, 1798.) You will therein find a very 
strange publication. I cannot observe without surprise, that in- 
triguers have profited of the insulated condition in which the en- 
vo} s of the United States have kept themselves, to make pro- 
posals and hold conversations, the object of which was evidently 
to deceive you. 

I pray you to make known to me immediately the names de- 
noted by the initials W, X, Y and Z, and that of the woman 
who is described as having had conversations Avith Mr. Pinck- 
ney upon the interests of America ; if you are averse to sending 
them to me in writing, be pleased to communicate them confix 
dentially to the bearer. 

I must rely upon your eagerness to enable the govei'nment to 
fathom those practices, of which I felicitate you on not having 
been the dupe, and which you must wish to see cleared up. 

Accept the assurance of my perfect consideration. 

(Signed) CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. 



Paris, May 3l6t, 1798. 
Your letter, Citizen Minister, of the 11th Prairial (30th 
May,) and the gazette to which it refers, were delivered to me 
by Mr. ; the latter contains the whole of the informal 



53 

negotiations communicated by the envoys to their government, 
and the letter states that certain intriguers have made proposi- 
tions and held conversations with the envoys, the object of which 
was evidently to deceive them. You have therefore desired me 
to communicate their names. If any of those persons were un- 
authorized to act, or having definite powers, have exceeded 
them, they certainly have abused this government and the envoys 
likewise ; but I am incompetent to judge of these points, as they 
did not produce, to my knowledge, credentials or documents of 
an}'- Jcind. 

The publications referred to are sufficient to show the delicate 
situation I am in with respect to the names of the persons, and 
are marked with such circumstances, as to enable you, I flatter 
myself, to investigate the subject without insisting on any com- 
munications on my part. 

To free, however, some innocent persons from suspicions 
which are said to have embarrassed them, I have no objection tP 
declare that three of the persons were foreigners, and that the 
fourth acted merely as a messenger and linguist. 

You will observe. Citizen Minister, how extremely averse the 
envoys were from such an informal mode of proceeding, by 
their answer of October the 30th, to certain propositions previ- 
ously made to them ; that on the 1st of November they agreed 
to put an end to such an intercourse ; and that they carried into 
effect their resolutions, notwithstanding the reiterated attempts 
afterwards made to defeat it. They conceived it nevertheless to 
be their duty to make a communication of the whole to their 
government. 

Accept, Citizen Minister, the assurances of my perfect esteem, 
(Signed) E. GERRY. 

(Copy.) 
To the Minister of Foreign Affairs 

of the French Republic. 



[TRANSLATION.] 

Paris, 13th Prairzal, Sth year. 
[June Ut, 1798.] 

The Minister of Exterior Relations, 

To Mr. Gerry, Envoy of the United States. 

I have received, sir, your letter of yesterday. You inform me, 
1st. That the gazette presented contains all the informal negotia- 
tions, communicated by the envoys to their government ; 2d. 
That the persons referred to, have not produced, to your know- 



54 

ledge, any authority, any document of any kind whatever, td 
accredit themselves ; 3d. That three of the individuals mentioned 
(that is to say^in the order in which I have placed them, W, X, 
Y) are foreigners, and the fourth (that is to say Z) acted only 
as messenger and interpreter. 

Although I perceive rour repugnance to naming those indivi- 
duals, I must earnesUy request you to yield it to the importance 
of the object. Be pleased, therefore, 1st. Either to give me 
their names in writing, or communicate them confidentially to the 
bearer ; 2d. To name the woman whom Mr. Pinckney men- 
tions ; 3d. To tell me whether any of the citizens attached to 
my service, and authorized by me to see the envoys, told them 
a word, which had the least relation to the disgusting proposi' 
tion which was made by X and Y to give any sum whatever for 
corrupt distribution. 

Receive, sir, the assurance of my perfect con- 
sideration. 

(Signed) CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. 

Fansj ytme Ist^ 1798» 
Citizen iVIinister, 

Being officially informed that sundry letters for General Mar- 
shall, Mr. Murray, ouf minister at the Hague, Mr. Bourne, 
our consul at Amsterdam, the house of Lange and Bourne, and 
myself, captured in the American ship Farmer, some time since^ 
and sent to Rotterdam, were by order of IMr. Delacroix trans- 
mitted to Paris, in pursuance of the instructions he received 
from this government, and having made several unsuccessful 
efforts to recover these despatches, permit me to request your 
assistance for obtaining them without further delay. 

Accept, Citizen Minister, the assurance of my perfect esteem 
and respect. 
(Signed) E. GERRY. 

To the 3Hnister of Foreign Affairs 
of the French Republic* 



Paris J June 3, 1798, Prairial 15, An. 6. 
Citizen Minister, 

Mr. has delivered me your letter of the 1 3th Prai- 

rial, wherein, after recapitulating a part of mine of the 31st of 
May, you request me immediately to submit to the importance 



55 

of the object, and 1st. To give you in writing, or communicate 
confidentially to him, the names of those persons designated by 
the letters W, X, Y, Z. 2dly. To name the woman quoted by 
Mr. Pinckney. 3dly. To inform you whether any of the citi- 
zens attached to your employments, and authorized by you to 
see the envoys, have said one word which had the least relation 
to the shocking proposition which has been made by X and Y, 
for us to deliver any sum whatever for a corrupt distribution. 

With respect to the persons designated by X, Y, Z, I will 
inclose you their names under my hand and seal, on your assur- 
ing me, that they shall not be published on my authority, al- 
though the measure does not appear to me necessary for their 
discovery ; and Z, as he informs me, has made himself known 
to you. But W never having spoken to me a word relative to 
X, or to any part of our communications, the manifest impro- 
priety of my giving hearsay information, will, I presume, apolo- 
gise for omitting it. 

I cannot give you the name of any lady, for no one has made 
any political communications to me since my arrival in Paris. 

In regard to the citizens attached to your employments, and 
authorized by you to see the envoys on your official communi- 
cations, I do not recollect a word from any of them, which had 
the least relation to the proposition made by X and Y, in their in- 
formal negotiations, to pay money for corrupt purposes. 

Accept, I pray you. Citizen Minister, the assurances of my 
perfect esteem and respect. 

(Signed) E. GERRY. 

To the Minister of Foreign Affairs 
of the French Republic, 



(TRANSLATION.) 

Paris ^ 16 Prairial, 6 Tear f^^th June^ 1798. J 
The Minister of Exterior Relations, 

To Mr. Gerry, Envoy \>i the United States. 

Your letter of yesterday, sjr, has just been handed to me. 
You may render to me in perfect confidence the names } ou men- 
tion to me, under your hand and seal. I assure you, that they 
shall not be published asr coming from you. 

Receive, Sir, the assurance of my perfect consideration. 
(Signed) CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. 



56 



Parls^ June 1798, Praivial 6 aiU 

The names of the persons designated in the communications 
of the envoys Extraordinary of the United States to their 
government, published in the Commercial Advertiser of the 
11th of April last, at New- York, are as follow : 

X, is Mr .* 

Y, is Mr. Bellamy. 
Z, is Mr. Hautval. 
(Signed) E. GERRY. 

To the Miriister of Foreign Affairs 
of the French Republic, 

* Mr. Gerry has inserted the proper name of X, in this docu- 
ment, as given to Mr. Talleyrand : But the person designated by 
X, not having (like Y) avowed himself, the promise made by the 
envoys to him and Y, " that their names should in no event be 
made public," is still obligatory on the executive in respect to X, 
and therefore his name is here omitted. , 

T. Pickering. 



IMPERIAL DECREE. 

Rejoinder to his Britannic Majesty's Orders in Council of the 1 1th 

of November, 1807. 

At our Royal Palace^ at Milan^ Deceinber IT, 1807. 

Napoleon, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, and Protector of 
the Rhenish Confederation — 

Observing the measures adopted by the British government, on 
the 11th of November last, by which vessels belonging to neutral, 
friendly, or even to powers the allies of England, are made liable, not 
only to be searched by English cruisers, but to be compulsorily de- 
tained in England, and to have a tax laid on them of so much per 
cent on the cargo, to be regulated by the Bi'itish legislature. 

Observing that by these acts the British government denational- 
izes ships of every nadon in Europe, that it is not competent for any 
government to detract from its own independence and rights, all the 
sovereigns of Europe having in trust the sovereignties and indepen- 
dence of the flag ; that if by an unpardonable weakness, and which, 
in the eyes of posterity, would be an indelible stain, such a tyranny 
was allowed to be established into principles, and consecrated by 
usage, the English would avail themselves of the tolerance of go- 
vernments to establish the infamous principles, that the flag of a na- 



57 

tion does not cover goods, and to give to their right of blockade an 
arbitrary extension, and which infringes on the sovereignty of every 
state ; we have decreed, and do decree as follows :— 

Art. 1. Every ship, to whatever nation it may belong, that shall 
have submitted to be searched by an English ship, or to a voyage to 
England, or that shall have paid any tax whatsoever to the English 
government, is thereby, and for that alone, declared to be denational- 
ized, to have forfeited the protection of its king, and to have become 
English property. 

Art. 2. Whether the ships thus denationalized by the arbitrary 
measures of the English government, enter into our ports, or those 
of our allies, or whether they fall into the hands of our ships of 
^var, or of our privateers, they are declared to be good and law- 
ful prizes. 

Art. 3. The British islands are declared to be in a state of block- 
ade, both by land and sea. Every ship, of whatever nation, or what- 
soever the nature of her cargo may be, that sails from the ports of 
England, or those of the English colonies, and of the countries occu- 
pied by English troops, and proceeding to England, or to English co- 
lonies, or to countries occupied by English troops, is good and lawful 
prize, as contrary to the present Decree ; and may be captured by 
ourships of war, or our privateers, and adjudged to the captor. 

Art. 4. These measures, which are resorted to only in just retaliw 
ation of the barbarous system adopted by England, which assimilates 
its legislation to that of Algiers, shall cease to have any effect with 
respect to all nations who shall have the firmness to compel the Eng- 
lish government to respect their flag. They shall continue to b© 
rigorously in force as long as that government does not return ta 
the principle of the law of nations, which regulates the relations of 
civilized states in a state of war. The provisions of the present De- 
cree shall be abrogated and null, in fact, as soon as the English abide 
again by the principles of the law of nations, which are also the prin-' 
ciples of justice and of honour. 

All our Ministers are charged with the execution of the present- 
Decree, which shall be inserted in the Bulletin of the Laws. 

(Signed) NAPOLEON. 

By order of the Emperor, 
The Secretary of State. 

(Signed) H. B. M.-vret. 



IMPERIAL DECREE, 

»ECLAniXO THE BRITISH XSLES IN A STATE OF BLOCKADfi. 

I/nfierial Cam/i, Berlin, J^Toveviher, 21, 1806. 

Napoleon, Emperor of the French, and King of Italy — consider- 
ing :— 

1 . That England does not admit the right of nations; as univeiv 
sally acknowledged by all civilized people >— 



58 

2. That she declares as an enemy, every individual belonging to 
an enemy state, and in consequence, makes prisoners of war, not 
only the crews of armed vessels, but those also of merchant vessels, 
and even the supercargoes of the same ;■— 

3. That she extends or applies to merchant vessels, to articles of 
commerce, and to the property of individuals, the right to conquest, 
which can only be applied or extended to what belongs to an enemy 
state : — 

4. That she extends to ports not fortified, to the harbours and 
mouths of rivers, the right of blockade, which, according to reason 
and the usage of civilized nations, is applicable only to strong or for- 
tified ports : 

That she declares blockaded, places before which she has not a 
single vessel of war ; although a place ought not to be considered 
blockaded, but when it is so invested as that no approach to it can be 
made without imminent hazard ; — that she declares even places 
blockaded, which her united forces would be incapable of doing, 
such as entire coasts, and a whole empire :— 

5. That this unequalled abuse of the right of blockade, has na 
other object, than to interrupt the communications of different na- 
tions, and to raise the commerce and industry of England upon the 
ruin of those of the continent : — 

6. That this being the evident design of England, whoever deals 
on the continent in English merchandise, favours that design, and 
becomes an accomplice :— 

7. That this conduct in England, (worthy only of the first ages of 
barbarism) has benefited her to the detriment of other nations :— 

8. That it being a right to oppose to an enemy the same arms she 
makes use of, to combat as she does ; when all ideas of justice, and 
every liberal sentiment, (the result of civilization among men) are 
disregarded :— 

We have resolved to enforce against England the usages which 
she has consecrated in her maritime code. 

The present decree shall be considered as the fundamental law of 
the empire, until England has acknowledged that the right of war is 
the same on land as at sea, that it cannot be extended to any private 
property v/hatever, nor to persons who are not militai-y, and until the 
right of blockade be restrained to fortified places actually invested 
by competent forces. 

Art. 1 . The British Islands are in a state of blockade. 

2. All commerce and correspondence with them is prohibited. 
Consequently, all letters or packets, Avritten in England, or to an 
Englishman, written in the English language, shall not be despatch- 
ed from the post-offices, and shall be seized. 

3. Every individual, a subject of Great Britain, of whatever rank 
or condition, who is found in countries occupied by our troops, or 
those of our allies, shall be made a prisoner of war. 

4. Every warehouse, all merchandise or pi'operty whatever, be- 
longing to an Englishman, are declared to be good prize. 

5. The conwnerce of English merchandise is prohibited. All mer^ 



■chandise belonging to England, oi* comingfrom her manufactories 
and colonies, are declared to be good prize. 

6. One half of the proceeds of merchandise declared to be good 
prize, and forfeited as in the preceding articles, shall go to indemni- 
fy merchants who have suffered losses by the English cruisers. 

7. No vessel coming directly from England or her colonies, or 
having been there since the publication of this decree, shall be ad- 
mitted into any port. 

8. Every vessel, that by a false declaration contravenes the fore- 
going disposition, shall be seized ; and the ship and cargo confiscat- 
ed as English property. 

[9. This article states, that the councils of prize* at Paris and at 
Milan, shall have recognizance of what may arise in the empire, and 
in Italy, under the present article.] 

10. Communications of this decree shall be made to the kings of 
Spain, Naples, Holland, Etruria, and to our other allies ; whose sub- 
jects, as well as ours, are victims of the injustice and barbarity of 
the English maritime code. 

11. Our ministers of foreign relations, &c. 8cc. are charged with 
the execution of the present decree. 

(Signed) NAPOLEON. 

By the Emperor, 
^. B. M^KET, Secretary of State. 



3Ir, Pinkney to Lord Wellesley. 

Great Cumberland Place, Aiigust25, 18W. 
My Lord, 
I have the honour to state to your lordship, that I have received 
from general Armstrong, minister plenipotentiary of the United 
States at Paris, a letter bearing date the 6th instant, in which he in- 
forms me that the government of France has revoked the decrees 
of Berlin and Milan, and thaj he has received a written and official 
notice of that fact in the following words : " Je suis autorise a voue 
declarer, monsieur, que ies decrets de Berlin et de Milan sont re- 
voques, et, qu'a dater du ier. Novembre, ils cesseront d^avoir leur 
effet." 

I take for granted that the revocation of the British orders in 
council of January and November, 1807, and April, 1809, and of all 
other orders, dependent upon, analogous to, or in execution of them, 
will follow of course ; and I shall hope to be enabled by your lord- 
ship, with as little delay as possible, to announce to my government 
that such revocation has taken place, 

I have the honour to be. Sic. &c. 
(Signed) Wm. PINKNEY, 

The most jioble the Marquis Wellesleyy ^c, ^c, iJfc, 



60 

^Ir. Smith to Mr. Pinkney. 

Department of State, October lO'ili, 1819 
SIR, 

Your despatch of the 24th of August, enclosing a newspaper 
statement of a letter from, the duke of Cadore to get^eral Armstrong, 
notifying a revocation of the Berlin and Milan decrees, has been 
received. It ought not to be doubted that this step of the French 
government will be followed by a repeal, on the part of the British 
government, of its orders in council. And if a termination of the 
crisis between Great Britain and the United States be really in- 
tended, the repeal ought to include the system of paper blockades, 
■which differ in name only from the retaliatory system comprised in 
the orders in council. From the complexion of the British prints, 
Bot to mention other considerations, the paper blockades may how- 
ever not be abandoned. There is hence a prospect that the United 
States may be brought to issue with Great Britain on the legality of 
such blockades. In such case, as it cannot be expected that the 
United States, founded as they are in law and in right, can acquiesce 
in the validity of the British practice ; it lies with the British govern- 
Tnent to remove the difficulty. In addition to the considerations 
heretofore stated to you in former letters, you may bring to the 
view of the British government the retraspective operation of those 
diplomatic notifications of blockades, which consider a notice to the 
minister as a notice to his government, and to the merchants, who 
are at a distance of three thousand miles. It will recur to your 
recollection, that the present ministry, in the debates of parliament, 
in opposition to the authors of the orders of January, 1807, denied 
that they were warranted by the law of nations. The analogy be- 
tween these orders and the blockade of May 1806, in so far as both 
relate to a trade between enemy ports, furnishes an appeal 
to the consistency of those now in office, and an answer to attempts 
by them to vindicate the legality of thdt blockade. It is remarka- 
ble, also, that this blockade is founded on " the new and extraor- 
dinary means resorted to by the enemy for the purpose of distress- 
ing the commerce of British subjects." IV/mt are those mearis ? 
In ivhat rcsspect do they violate our neutral rights ? Are they still in 
operation ? It is believed that true answers to these questions will 
enforce the obligation of yielding to our demands on this subject. 
You may also refer the British government to the characteristic de- 
finition of a blockaded port, as set forth in their treaty with Russia, 
of June, 1801, the preamble of which declares,that one of its objects 
■was to settle " an invariable determination of their principles upon 
the rights of neutrality." 

Should the British government unexpectedly resort to the pre- 
text of an acquiescence on the part of the United States in their 
practice, it may be remarked, that prior to, as well as during the 
present administration, this government has invariably protested 
against such pretensions ; and in addition to other instances hereto- 
fore communicated to you, I herewith transmit to you an extract of a 
letter to the department of state, of July 15th, 1799, from Mr. King, 
pur Minister at London, and also such part of Mr, IMarshall's letter 



61 

to hiin, of the 20tli September, 1800, as relates to the subject of 
blockades. And it may moreover be urged, that the principle now 
contended for by the United States was maintained against others, 
as well as Great Britain, as appears from the accompanying copy of 
the letter to our minister at Madrid, in the year 1801. To this prin- 
ciple the United States also adhered when a belligerent, as in the 
case of the blockade of Tripoli, as will be seen by the annexed let- 
ter from the navy department. You will press on the justice, friend- 
ship and policy of Great Britain, such a course of proceeding as will 
obviate the dilemma resulting to the United States from a refu- 
sal to put an end to the paper blockades, as well as the orders in 
council. 

The necessity of revoking the blockade of Copenhagen, as 
notified to you in May, 1808, will not escape your attention. 
Its continuance may embarrass us with Denmark, if not with 
France. 

Your answer as to the Corfu blockade is approved : and should 
the answer to it render a reply necessary, the president directs 
you to remonstrate against such a blockade ; availing yourself, 
as far as they may be applicable, of the ideas in the letter to 
Mr. Charles Phickncy of October, 1801, and particularly of the 
proof it affords of our early remonstrance against the principle of 
such blockades. 

No communication having yet been made by general Armstrong 
©fa letter to him from the Duke of Cadore, declaring that the Ber- 
Hn and Milan decrees will cease to be in force from the first day of 
November next, I can at this time only inform you, that if the pro- 
ceedings of the French government^ nvhen officially received, ihould 
correspond ivith the printed letter of the duke of Cadore, enclosed in 
your despatch, you will let the British government understand, that 
on the first day of November the president will issue his procla- 
mation, conformably to the act of congress, and that the non-inter- 
course law will consequently be revived against Great Britain. And 
if the Britsh government should not, with the early notice received 
of the repeal of the French decrees, have i-evoked all its orders 
which violate our neutral rights, it should not be overlooked, that 
congress, at their approaching session, may be induced not to wait 
for the expiration of the three months, (which were allowed on the 
supposition that the first notice might pass through the United 
States) before they give effect to the renewal of the non-intercourse. 
This consideration ought to have its weight, in dissuading the Bri- 
tish government from the policy, in every respect misjudged, of 
procrastinating the repeal of its illegal edicts. 

If the British government be sincerely disposed to come to a good 
understanding, and to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the 
United States, it cannot but be sensible of the necessity, in ad- 
dition to a compliance with the act of congress, of concluding at 
this time a general arrangement of the topics between the two 
■countries ; and, above all, such an one as will upon equitable terms, 
effectually put a stop to the insufferable vexations to which our 
isearaen have been and are yet exposed, from the British practice 



m 

©f impressment ; a practice which has so strong aT)earing on out* 
neutrality, and to v/hich no nation can submit consistently with its 
independency. To this very interesting subject you will therefore 
recall the attention of the British government, and you will accord- 
ingly consider yourself herebj' authorized to discuss and adjust the 
same separately, conformably to the instructions in my letter to 
you of the 20th January last, on the condition, however, contained 
in that letter, namely, that the requisite atonement shall have been 
previously made in the <:ase of the outrage on the Chesapeake. 
But, as in this case, eveiy admissible advance has been exhausted 
on the part of the United States, it will be improper to renew the 
subject to the British government, with which it must lie to come 
forward with the requisite satisfaction to the United States. You 
will therefore merely evince a disposition to meet, in a conciliatory 
form, any overtures that may be made on the part of the British go- 
vernment. 

The British government having so long omitted to fulfil the just 
expectations of the United States, in relation to a successor to Mr. 
Jackson, notwithstanding the reiterated assurances to you of such an 
intention, has no clairns to further indulgence. On the receipt of 
this letter, therefore, should the appointment of a plenipotentiary 
successor not have been made and communicated to you, you will 
let your purpose be known of returning to the United States, un- 
less, indeed, the British government should have unequivocally 
manifested a disposition to revoke their orders in council, conform- 
ably to the act of congress of May last, and our affairs with them 
should have accordingly taken so favourable a turn as to justify, in 
your judgment, a further suspension of it. 

I have tlic honour, 8cc. &c. 
(Signed) R. SMITH. 

Wm. Pinkney^ E^g. hP'c. ^c. is'c. 



Mr. Smith to General Armstrong. 

Department of State, June 5, 1810. 
SIR, 

The arrival of the John Adaras "brought your letters of the 1st, 
4th, 7th and 1 6th of April. 

From that of the 16th of April it appears, that the seizures of the 
American property, lately made, had been followed up by its act«al 
sale, and that the proceeds had been deposited in the emperor's caisse 
Jirive. You have represented in such just colours, the enorinity of 
this outrage., that I have only to signify to you, that the president en- 
tirely approves the step that has been taken by you, and tliat he does 
not doubt that it will be followed by you, or the person who may 
succeed you, with such further interpositions as may be deemed ad- 
visable. He instructs you particularly to make the French govern^- 
ment sensible of the deep impression made here by so signal an agf 
gression on the Jirincifiles of justice and of good faith, and to demand 
every reparation of which the case is susceptible. If it be not the 
imrfio^e of the French government to remove every i^ea of friendly 



63 

nd/ustment with the United States, it luould seem imfiossible but thai 
a recoftsideration of this uioietit firoceeding must lead to a redress of 
ity as a fireliminary to a general accommodation of the differences be- 
tween the two countries. 

At the date of the last communication from Mr. Pinkney, he had 
not obtained from the British government an acceptance of the con- 
dition, on which the French government was willing to concur 
in putting an end to all the edicts of both, against our neuti-al 
commerce. If he should afterwards have succeeded, you will of 
course, on receiving information of the fact, immediately claina 
from the French government the fulfilment of its promise, and by 
transmitting the result to Mr. Pinkney, you will co-operate with him 
in completing the removal of all tlie illegal obstructions to our 
commerce. 

Among the documents now sent is another copy of the act of con- 
gress, repealing the non-intercourse law, but authorizing a re- 
newal of it against Great Britain, in case France shall repeal her 
edicts and Great Britain refuse to follow her example, and -vice -ver- 
sa. You have been already informed that the president was ready to 
exercise the power vested in him for such a purpose, as soon as the 
occasion shall arise. Should the other experiment, in the hands of 
Mr. Pinkney, have failed, you will make the act of congress, and 
the disposition of the president, the subject of a formal communica- 
tion to the French government, and it is not easy to conceive any 
ground, even specious, on which the overtm-e specified in the act 
can be declined. 

If the non-intercourse law, in any of its modifications, was 
objectionable to tlie emperor of the French, that law no longer 
exists. 

If he be ready, as has been declared in the letter of the duke of 
Cadore, of February 14, to do justice to the United States, in tlie 
fiase of a pledge on their part not to submit to the British edicts, the 
opportunity for making good the declaration is now afforded. In- 
yead of submission, the president is ready, by renewing the non- 
intercourse against Great Britain, to oppose to her orders in council 
a measure, which is of a character that ought to satisfy any reasona- 
ble expectation. If it should be necessary for you to meet the ques- 
tion, Avhether the non-intercourse will be renewed against Great 
Britain, in case she should not comprehend, in the repeal of her 
edicts, her blockades, which are not consistent with the law of na- 
tions, you may, should it be found necessary, let it be understood, 
that a repeal of the illegal blockades of a date prior to the Berlin dc-v 
cree, namely, that of May, 18.06, will be included in the condition 
required of Great Britain ; that particular blockade having been 
avowed to be comprehended in, and of course identified with the or- 
ders in council. With- respect to blockades, of a subsequent date 
or not, against France, you will press the reasonableness of leaving 
them, together with future blockades not warranted by public law, 
to be proceeded against by the United States in the manner they 
may choose to adopt. As has been heretofore stated to you, a satis- 
factory pTQ-vhionf^)' re^{^nn§; the property lately surprised and seiZ' 



ed by the order y or at the vistance of the French ffovcrn'fieyify rhusf 
be coinb'med with a repeal of the French edictHy with a xnevj to a nou' 
intercourse with Great Britain : such a provision being an indispen- 
sable evidence of the just purpose of France towards the United 
States. And you will, moreover, be careful, in arranging 
such a provision for that particular case of spoliations, not to 
weaken the ground on which a redress of others may be justly 
pursued. 

If the act of congress which has legalized a free trade with both 
the belligerents, without guarding against British interruptions of it 
with France, while France cannot materially interrupt it with Great 
Britain, be complained of as leaving the trade on the worst possible 
footing for France, and on the best possible one for Great Britain, 
the French government may be reminded of the other feature of the 
act, which puts it in their own power to obtain either an inter- 
ruption of our trade with Great Britain, or a recall of her interrup- 
tion of it with France. 

Among the considerations which belong to this subject, it may be 
remarked, that it might have been reasonably expected^ by the United 
States, that a repeal of the French decrees would have resulted from, 
the British order i?i council of April, 1809. This order expressly re- 
voked the preceding orders of JVovember, 1807, heretofore urged by 
France in justificatioyi of her decrees, and was not only different in its 
extent and its details, but was essentially different in its policy. 

The policy of the orders of 1 807 was, by cutting off all commer- 
cial supplies, to retort on her enemies the distress which the French 
decree was intended to inflict on Great Britain. 

The policy of the order of April, 1809, if not avowedly, was most 
certainly to prevent such supplies, by shutting out those only which 
might flow from neutral sources, in order thereby to favour a sur- 
reptitious monopoly to British traders. In order to counteract this 
policy, it was the manifest interest of France to have favoured the 
rival and cheaper supplies through neutrals ; instead of which, she 
has co-operated with the monopolizing views of Great Britain by a 
rigorous exclusion of neutrals from her ports. She has in fact re- 
versed the operation originally professed by her decree. Instead of 
annoying her enemy at the expense of a friend, she annoys a friend 
for the benefit of her enemy. 

If the French government should accede to the overture contained 
in the act of congress, by repealing, or so modifying its decrees, as 
that they will cease to violate our neutral rights, you will, if neces- 
sary, transmit the repeal, properly authenticated, to Mr. Pinkney, 
by a special messenger, and you will hasten and insure the receipt 
of it here, by engaging a vessel, if no equivalent conveyance should 
offer, to bring it dii'ectly from France, and by sending several copies 
to Mr. Pinkney to be forwarded fi'om British ports. 

I have the honour, &c. Sec. 
(Signed) R. SMITH. 

General Armstrong^ Isfc. l^c. 



65 

Mr, Barlow to Mr. Russell^ 2d March ^ 1812. 
It seems, from a variety of documents that I have seen, and 
among others the decision of Sir William Scott in the case of the 
ship Fox, that the British government requires more proof of the 
effectual revocation, by the French government, of the Berlin and 
Milan decrees. Though it is not easy to perceive what purpose 
such additional proof is to answer, either for obtaining justice or for 
showing why it is refused, yet I herewith send you a few cases in 
addition to what have already been furnished. 

Among these I believe you will find such as will touch every point 
that was contemplated in those decrees, to prove them all to have 
been removed. If not, and still further proof after this should be 
deemed necessary, I can doubtless furnish it ; for the subject is not 
exhausted, though your patience may be. 

1st. The schooner Fly, Adams, of and from New- York, loaded 
with cotton, sugar and coffee, bound to St. Petersburgh, taken by an 
English cruizer, and carried into Cowes, thence released, came into 
Havre, declared the facts as above, entered, sold her cargo, reload- 
ed with French goods, and departed without molestation. 

2d. The brig Ann-Maria, of and from New- York, D. Campbell, 
master, bound to a port in France, loaded with pot-ash, cotton, 
staves, put into Falmouth, then came to Morlaix, entered, sold, 
bought, reloaded, and departed, as above. 

3d. The ship Neptune, Hopkins, bound from London to Charles- 
ton, in ballast, taken, brought into Dieppe, restored by a decree of 
the Emperor, and departed agam in ballast. 

4th. Ship Marquis de Someruelos, with indigo, fish, cotton, bound 
to Civitta Vecchia, boarded by a British frigate, arrived at her port, 
declai-ed the fact, entered, sold, and is now reloading for the United 
States. 

5th. Ship Phoebe, from Boston to Civitta Vecchia, colonial pre 
duce, boarded as above, arrived, entered, sold, and is now reloading 
for departui'e. 

6th. Ship Recovery, of Boston, with pepper, boarded, arrived, en- 
tered, and treated as above at the same place ; now selling her 
cargo. 

7th. Brig Star, bound to Naples, with colonial produce, taken 
and carried into Toulon, for having touched at Gibraltar, under pre- 
tence of a violation of the decrees, and restored by the Emperor, 
on the express ground that the decrees no longer existed, as applica- 
ble to the United States. 

It would be wrong to allege that any of these vessels were pro- 
tected by special licenses. In the first place, only three of tlj^ 
seven had licenses ; those were the Fly, the Phoebe, and the Reco- 
very. Secondly. It is well known tliat licenses are not. and never 
were given as protections against the effects of those decrees. The 
object of the licenses given to the vessels of the United States is 
distinctly defined to be merely to guard against false papers, and to 
prove the regularity of the voyage. They are used only for colonial 
produce, and not at all for the produce of the United States ; and we 
see in every instance, that a vessel loaded wholly with produce of 

1 



6B 

;iie Uuiied States, or la ballast, is respected by the governmeiit here, 
At least I know it has been so, in every instance, since my arrival itt 
September last ; and there have been, I doubt not, 30 or 40 such 
vessels in France within that period. But a vessel loaded with co- 
lonial produce, and sailing without a license, would be certainly con- 
fiscated, whether she had violated the supposed decrees or not. In- 
deed, the regulation about licenses is not a maritime regulation, and 
it has nothing to do with neutral rights. It is, strictly speaking, 
a relaxatio7i of the JP'rench navigation act^ in favour of such particu- 
lar persons as obtain them, to enable such persons to bring goods of 
an origin foreign to the United States into France . 

It ie the same as if a vessel of the United States should, by a spc* 
cial relaxation of the English navigation act, obtain a license to bring 
Brazil sugars or French wines into England. Such a license would 
surely not be considered as a bi'each, on the part of England, of our 
neutral rights, neither would it be a breach of such rights to confis- 
cate our vessels carrying such articles into England without a li- 
cense. The violation of the navigation law, either of Fraiice or 
England, is not a neutral right, and therefore the punisliment of such 
violation is not a breach of neutral right. 

I have taken the liberty to be thus particular on this head, because 
in several instances, during the discussion with the ministers of the 
British government, I have seen a disposition in them to confound 
with the French maritime decrees, not only this affair of special li- 
censes, but several regulations merely fiscal and municipal, bearing 
no relation to neutral rights, or to the decrees in question. 

1 will terminate this statement by repeating the solemn declaration 
that I made to you in my letter to you of the 30th January, (and 
there is no impropriety in the repetition, since a greater length of 
time has given a wider scope to the declaration,) that since my arri- 
val in September last, there has not been a single instance of the 
application of the Berlin and Milan decrees to an Amercian vessel or 
cargo, and that I have not heard of their having been so applied, 
since the first of November, 1810, though many instances have oc- 
curred wit in that period, in which they must have been so applied, 
had they been in vigour. 

it is difficult to conceive, probably impossible to procure, and cre- 
tainly insulting to require, a mass of evidence more positive than 
this, or more conclusive to every unprejudiced mind. 

(Signed) J. BARLOW. 

Cojjy of a letter from Mr. Barlow to the Dilke of BassanOj 
dated March 12, 1812. 
The undersigned, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, 
Las the honour to transmit, here enclosed, to his excellency the 
Duke of Bassano, minister of foreign relations, copies of the pro- 
tests of Thomas Holden, master of the American brig Dolly, of 
New-York, and Stephen Bayard, master of the American ship Tele- 
graph, of New-York, by which his excellency will learn that these 
vessels have been met with at sea, by his imperial and royal Maje^- 



67 

ty's ships, the Medusa, captain Raoel, and the Nymph, captain Plas* 
saw, who, after having plundered them of part of their cargoes, de- 
stroyed the remainder by burning the ships. 

It is a painful task to the undersigned to be obliged so frequently 
to call the attention of his excellency to such lawless depredations. 
It appears to him, that in the whole catalogue of outrages on the 
part of the cruisers of the belligerents, of which the United States 
have such great and just reason to complain, there are none more 
vexatious and reprehensible than this. 

Upon what ground can such spoliations-be justified ? Will it bo 
alleged that the destruction of these vessels was necessary in order 
to prevent their carrying information to the enemy, and thereby en- 
danger the safety of these frigates upon a trackless ocean ? This 
would be a poor defence. After boarding these peaceful traders, 
they might easily have led their course south, when they intended 
to go north. They could even have maintained their assumed cha- 
racter of British ships, under whicli it seems they began the commis- 
sion of these flagrant acts, and thus have prevented all information 
of their cruising in those latitudes. 

But it appears that plunder and not safety was the object for 
which they have thus disgraced the imperial flag. For his excel- 
lency will probably have learnt from Brest, where the frigates en- 
tered, that the twenty boxes of spices, and other articles taken from 
the Telegraph, were smuggled on shore, and it is said, were sold for 
{lie benefit of the equipage of the Medusa. 

Thus is the property of citizens of the United States seized, con- 
demned, and sold by oflicers in the imperial navy, who became at 
once captors, judges and venders of the pi'opcrty of unoffending neu- 
trals. Such disgraceful violations of every principle on which na- 
tions consent to live in peace, ought never to go unpunished, and 
surely in this case they will not. 

The undersigned, therefore, most earnestly calls on his excellency, 
the Minister of Foreign Relations, as the official guardian of public 
right, to lay a statement of this outrage before his Majesty in such a 
point of view as shall produce a speedy compensation to the Captains 
Holden and Bayard, and the owners of the ships and cargoes, for the 
losses they have sustained; and his Majesty will doubtless take mea- 
sures to avenge the dignity and signalize the justice of his govern- 
ment by punishing such a crime in a manner to prevent its repe- 
tition. 

The valuation of the Dolly and her cargo, and of the Telegraph 
and her cargo, is herev/ith enclosed ; the delay in obtaining these va- 
luations has retarded, for some weeks, the presentation of this letter ; 
and the undersigned cannot but indulge the hope that his excellency 
will no'^ give as early attention to tlic v/holecf the case, as its im 
portance manifestly demands. 

The undersigned begs his excellency, 8:c. &c. 

(Signed) J. BARLOW. 

His Excellrnr-!!^ thf; Duh,^ of Bnf^.van'). 



68 

Mt\ RusseIVs Communications. 

A schedule of American vessels taken by French privateers 
bince the first of November 1810, [the period of the alleged re- 
peal of the French decrees :] of these it was worthy of remark, 
that " the Robinsonova, from Norfolk to London, with tobacco, 
cotton and staves ; the Mary Ann from Charleston to London, with 
cotton and rice ; the General Eaton, from London to Charles- 
ton, in ballast ; the Neptune, from London to Charleston, also 
in ballast ; the Clio, from London to Philadelphia, with English 
manufactures ; the Zebra, from Boston to Tarragona (theii in 
possession of the Spaniards ) with staves ; all coming under the 
operation of the French decrees, and seized since the 2d Novem- 
ber^ 1810, had not been restored, on the 14th of July last :" and 
that the only two vessels named in that schedule, which had been 
restored, viz. the Two Brothers from Boston to St. Malo, and 
the Star from Salem to Naples (the one a port in France, the 
other virtually a French port) did not come within the scope of 
the Berlin and Milan decrees. — Indeed, the only cases relied 
upon by Mr. Monroe to prove the repeal of the French decrees, 
are those of the Grace- Ann-Green, and the New-Orleans Pack- 
et. On the first of these no great stress is laid — because, having 
been captured by an English cruiser, she was retaken by her 
own crew and carried into Marseilles, where, consequently, the 
captors became French prisoners of war. 



Lettre dxi Conceiller d'Etat^ 22 Avrih 1808. 

Orders of his Majesty, the Emperor, issued at Bayonne, April 
17, 1808 : 

The American government having placed a general embargo 
in all the ports of the United States, has suspended all com- 
merce. 

AH American ships shall, in consequence, be considered as 
from England, and under sequestration. 

And further, there shall be sent to the Counsellor of State, iii 
order to be laid before his Majesty, a statement of all the Ame- 
rican vessels which have entered our ports since the first of Jan- 
uary, 1808. 

Trmislation of a decree^ issued by the emperor of the French^ 
at Rambouillet^ 23d Marchy 1810. 
Napoleon, &c. &c. considering that the government of the 
United States, by an act, dated 1st March, 1809, which forbids 
the entrance of the ports, harbours and rivers of the said states 
to all French vessels, orders, 1st. That after the 20th May fol- 
lowing, vessels under the French flag, which shall arrive in the 



69 

United States, shall be seized and confiscated as well as their 
cargoes. 2dly. That after the same epoch, no merchandise or 
produce, the growth or manufacture of France, or her colonies, 
can be imported into the United States, from any foreign port 
or place whatsoever, under the penalty of seizure, confiscation, 
and a fine of three times the value of the merchandise. 3dly. 
That American vessels cannot go to any port of France, of her 
colonies, or dependencies : We have decreed and do decree what 
follows : 

Art. 1. All vessels navigating under the flag of the United 
States, or possessed, in whole or in part, by any citizen or sub- 
ject of that power, which, counting from the 20th May, 1809, 
have entered or shall enter into the ports of our empire, of our 
colonies, or of the countries occupied by our arms, shall be seiz- 
ed, and the product of the sales shall be deposited in the surplus 
fund (caisse d'amortisement.) 

There shall be exempted from this regulation, the vessels 
which shall be charged with despatches, or with commissions of 
the government of the said states, and who shall not have entered 
cargoes or merchandise on board. 

Our grand judge, minister of justice, and our minister of 
finance are charged with the execution of our present decree. 
(Signed) NAPOLEON. 



/ 



IE 



